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H.W. BAIRD LIBRARY EDITION 



The Stru^^le for Existence 





H. W. BAIRD LIBRARY EDITION 



THE 



Struggle For Existence 



BY 



WALTER THOMAS MILLS, A. M. 






"Move upward, working out the beast, and let the ape and tiger die."— Tennyson: 
In Memoriam, cxviii. 

"It is well if the mass of mankind will obey the laws when made without scrut- 
inizing too nicely into the reasons for making them." — Blackstone: Commentaries on 
the Laws of England, Book II, Gh. I. 

"The starting point of the development that gave rise to the wage-laborer as well 
as to the capitaUst was the servitude of the laborer."— Marx: Capital, p. 739. 

"Since the advent of civilization, the outgrowth of property has been so immense 
* * * that it has become, on the part of the people, an unmanageable power * * * 
The time will come, nevertheless, when human inteUigence will rise to the mastery over 
property, and define the relations of the state to the property it protects, as well as the 
obligations and the limits of the rights of its owners."— Morgan: Ancient Society, p. 552. 



TENTH EDITION — FIFTIETH THOUSAND 



INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SOCIAL ECONOMY 
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 



H>: 



(V 



Copyright, 1904, by Hilda F. Mills 

Copyright, 1904, 

BY HILDA F. MILLS 

UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND 

MAY 

All Rights Reserved. 



Published Simultaneously in United 

States and England May 

28, 1904. 



Copyright, Revised Edition, 1914 

BY FIILDA F. MILLS 

UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND 

All Rights Reserved 



Published Simultaneously in United 
States and England. 



OCT 24 1914 

©C/,A387235 



/Y 



TO THE GREAT MULTITUDE 

OF THOSE WHO ARE STRUGGLING FOR EXISTENCE 
THIS VOLUME IS OFFERED BY ONE OF THE STRUG- 
GLERS. BUT FIRST OF ALL, AND ABOVE ALL OTHERS, 
IT IS GIVEN TO THE WOMAN WHOSE DEVOTION TO 
THE UPWARD STRUGGLE, WHOSE PERSONAL SACRI- 
FICE AND WHOSE CONSTANT ASSISTANCE HAS MADE 
THIS WRITING AND ITS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE — 

TO MY WIFE. HILDA F. MILLS 



- PEEFACE 

In the preparation of this book it has been my wish 
to help those who are trying to help others in the long 
warfare against oppression and so to have some share 
in helping to make a speedy and peaceful transition 
from the outworn social forms, by which we are sur- 
rounded and of which we are the victims, to the next 
order of things, in the long ascent of the universal life 
of which I am a part. 

I wish it were possible to mention by name many of 
those who have helped me among the more than three 
thousand of my students and comrades who have 
studied and criticised large portions of these discus- 
sions in advance sheets. It had been my purpose to do 
so, but the number has so outgrown all expectations in 
that particular as to make it entirely impracticable. 
They are found in every state in the Union, in all the 
provinces of Canada, in England and on the Continent, 
in India, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the Philip- 
pines, Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico and Cuba. Their in- 
quiries, suggestions and encouragement and, finally, 
their assistance in publishing this volume, have placed 
me under lasting obligations to them all. 

Waltee Thomas Mills 
Eosedale, Kans., Dec. 1, 1903. 

AUTHOE'S NOTE TO THE TENTH EDITION 

Since writing the above some fifty thousand copies 
of this book have been brought into use. My students 
have been called into positions everywhere, offering 
great opportunities for effective service. It is a 
matter of great personal satisfaction to me that they 
are more than justifying my highest hopes for their 
personal usefulness. In a '^ World Around Lecture 
Tour,'' just now completed, I am glad to have met 
them and to have been welcomed by them in many 
lands. For the proven usefulness of this book and the 
success of my students I am sincerely grateful. 

Walter Thomas Mills 
Berkeley, Calf., July 15, 1914. 



AN OUTLINE 



Part I 





Clearing 


3. 




THE 


4. 




Ground 


L 5. 

r 6. 




Part II 


7. 

8. 




Evolution -| 


0. 




OF 


10. 


tp 


Capitalism 


11. 


u 




L 12. 


z 




r 13. 


w 




14: 


H 


Part III 


15. 


CO 




16. 


>< 


Evolution 


17. 
18. 


W 


OF 


10. 




Socialism 


20. 


ct: 




21. 
22. 


o 






^^ 


Part IV 


'p- 


m 


Questions 
of 


2.5. 
26. 

27. 


O 


Controversy 


L 28. 


a 




r 29. 


D 




30. 






31. 
32. 
33. 


C/D 


Part V 


34. 
35. 


w 


Current 


36. 


DC 


Problems 


37. 

38 


H 




40. 

41. 

42. 

I 43. 




Part VI 


f 44. 
45. 
46. 




Organization h 




and 
L Propaganda 


,tl: 



Chap, 

1. Capitalism and Socialism. 

2. First Principles. 
Primitive Life. 

Order of Primitive Progress. 
Summary. 

Slavery. 

Serfdom. 

The Wage System. 

The Era of Invention. 

The Trust and the World Market. 

The Collapse of Capitalism. 

Summary. 

Collectivism, Democracy and Equality. 

Same — Continued. 

The Ownership of the Earth. 

Religious and Political Democracies. 

Modern Science and Socialism. 

Machine Production. 

Utopias and Co-operative Society. 

Growth of Sense of Solidarity. 

The Irrepressible Conflict. 

Collapse of Capitalism, the Triumph of Socialism. 

The Purposes of the State. 
Assumptions in Economics. 
Theories of Value. 
The Money Question. 
Theories of Population. 
Rent, Interest and Profit. 

The Fine Arts and Socialism. 
Religion and Socialism. 
Education and Socialism. 
The Farmer and Socialism. 
The Middle Class and Socialism. 
The Trust, Imperialism and Socialism. 
Labor Unions and Socialism. 
Municipal Misrule and Socialism. 
Unjust Taxation and Socialism. 
Public Ownership and Socialism. 
Civil Service and Socialism. 
Status of Women and Socialism. 
The Race I'roblem and Socialism. 
The Traffic in Vice and Socialism. 
Charity Organizations and Socialism. 

The Nature of a Political Party. 

The Socialist Party. 

A Question Box. 

How to Work for Socialism. 

The Final Summary. 



CONTENTS 



PART I 
CLEARING THE GROUND 



CHAPTER I 

CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM 

The Means of Life— Their Sources— 'Monopoly— Tyranny— Inequality— No Legal 
RifiTht to Life— Inherited Mastery and Servitude— Collectivism— Democracy— Equal- 
ity— Under Socialism— 'Summary. 

CHAPTER II 

FIRST PRINCIPLES 

In the Be^nnlng— The Struggle for Existence— The Collective Struggle— Con> 
etant Changes and Survivals— The Higher from the Lower Forms— Argument for 
tha Theory of Development— The Human Embryo— Rudimentary Survivals— The 
Record of the Rocks— The Time Required— Confirmation by the Astronomers— 
Conclusions— Summary. 

CHAPTER III 

PRIMITIVB LIFE 

Savagery, Barbarism and Civilization— The Order of Development— Object Les- 
sons in History— Primitive Man Not Helpless— The Roots of Civilization— The 
Struggle for Existence Fundamental— The Human Brain With Both Base and 
Dome— Hlglier Activities Not Denied— The Crucifixion of the Worthiest and the 
Survival of the Best Adapted— Darwin, Spencer, Marx-^Summary. 

CHAPTER rV 

THE OiRDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 

First Period, Man With Only His Inheritance From His AnlmaJ Ancestry- 
Second Period, Fire— Third Period, Bow and Arrow— Fourth Period, Pottery— Fifth 
Period, Taming the Animals— 'Sixth Period, Iron— Primitive Products and Inven- 
tions — Barbarian Expansion— Seventh Period, The Alphabet, War, Slavery and the 
Class Struggle— Whence Slavery— The Hunter and the Soldier— Robbing the Rob- 
bers—Subjection of Women— Achievements of Primitive Society— Mechanical An« 
cestry— Brotherhood— Economic Classes— Slaves and Soldiers— Summary. 

CHAPTER V 

A SUMMARY OF PART FIRST 



10 
PART II 

THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM 



CHAPTER VI 

SLAVERY 
Evolution— The Struggle for Land— Tribes Enslaved— The Social and the Mili- 
tary— The City, Politics and Militarism— Conquered Tribes and Private Lands— 
Not the Oldest Form of Labor— Traditions— Roman Law— Primitive Democracies- 
Old Words for Slave— Primitive Burials— Indians Without Slaves^Negroes Not 
Originally in Slavery — Cruelties — Products of Slave Labor — Slavery in the United 
States— Destroyed by War, Wage System Pays Better— White Slavery in America 
—.Selling Negroes to Themselves— The Slave Dealing North— Slave I^abor Unprof- 
itable—Wage System Impossible Under Barbarism— Emancipation Forbidden=^ 
Sunimary. 

CHAPTER VII 

SERFDOM 
Workmen Born, Not Captured— The Serf's Home— The Slave Market— Ger- 
manic Tribes in Southern Europe— In Teutonic and Celtic Countries— Thorold 
Rogers on the Fifteenth Century— Denial of Political Power— Serfdom in America 
—Slavery and Serfdom— Vice, . Cruelty and Greed— The Masters Make the Change 
to Serfdomr— Transition Most Obscure— Slaves Could Not— Masters Did— Summary, 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE WAGE SYSTEM 
Slavery, Serfdom and the Wage System— Industrial Discipline— The Struggle 
lor Land Again— Expansion Inevitable— Widening Peaceful Territory— Jealousies 
—Divine Right of Kings— The Towns— Better iRoads, More Trade— Robber Barons- 
Free Cities— The Modern City— The Growing Market— Gun Powder— Worthless 
pasties, the King's Soldiers — Discharged Soldiers and Evicted Serfs^ — The Wage 
System— The Class War— Peddlers, Merchants and Helpless Workers— New 
Countries— Printing— The Industrial Revolt Against the Church— Commerce— Poli- 
tical Economy and the Factory Towns— Wage System Came by Choice of the 
Masters, the Workers were Helpless— Could Have Had Slaves— A Long Evolution— 
Summary. 

CHAPTER IX 

THE ERA OF INVENTION AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

Lands, Slaves, Tools— The Earth Not Restored— Arrested Growth— Slavery and 
Inventions— Militarism and Politics— Culmination of Growth of Tools, Organization 
and Conquest — Machinery — The Free Cities, the American Frontier and Inventions 
—Industrial Occupation and Inventions — Tools and Machines — The Industrial 
Revolution— The Organization of Industry and Inventions— Power Machinery, 
Connecting Machinery and Machine Tools— The Skilled Worker and Machinery— 
The Displacement of Labor- Loss of Solidarity— Individual Deliverance— Workers 
Again Bound to Their Class— The Strong Men, to Save Themselves Must Save 
Their Class-^Summary. 

CHAPTER X 

THE TRUST, THE WORLD— MAEKET AND IMPERIALISM 

Evolution of the Corporation— Victory of the Big Machines— A Wider Market 
—Bankruptcy and Consolidation— The Trust— Consolidation Without Bankruptcy— 
The Trust at Work — Closing Factories — Looking for Investments — Economies of 
the Trust— Monopoly and the Trust— The International Trust— The World Market 
The Trust at Work— Closing Factories— Looking for Investments— Economies of 
Surviving Factory— International Strikes and Trusts— Tne Tariff, the Trust and 
the Shanghai Factory— No Possible Competitor— Cornered at Last— Imperialism- 
Choosing a Flag to Starve Under- Imperialism, Militarism, Expansion, Capital- 
ism—Summary. 

CHAPTER XI 

THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM 
The Culmination— Surplus Products— The Foreign Market— Losing the Market- 
Purchasing Power— Commercial Suicide— The Collapse— The Bankrupt Trusts- 
Played to a Finish— Compulsory Idleness— The Class War— Benevolent Feudalism 
—Inner Circle Uaable to Keep the Peace, Disguise Its Crimes or Defend Itself— 
Summary. 

CHAPTER XII 

A SUMMARY OF PART SECOND 



11 

PART III 

THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM 



CHAPTER XIII 

COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY AND EQUALITY 
Capitalism Not the Invention of Capitalists— Socialism Not the Invention of 
Socialists— Underlying Principles— Inherent in the Nature of Things— In Care of 
Young— In Primitive Groups— In the Nations— In Business— Democracy— In an 
Organism — In Reproduction — Unanimous Agreement — Democratic Armies — Col- 
lectivism and Democracy— Equality— Primitive Equality— The Just Powers of 
Government— The Concern of All— Summary. 

CHAPTER XIV 

COLLECTTVTSM, DEMOCRACY AND EQUALITY— (Continued). 
Things in Common— Village Communities— Slave Associations— Ancient Trade 
Unions— The Early Chvu-ch- The Free Cities— Fraternal Societies— Modem Labor 
Unions— Working Class .Solidarity— Monopoly— The Whole is Greater Than Any 
of Its Parts— Sanitary Conditions— Conclusions— Summary. 

CHAPTER XV 

COLLECTIVISM IN THE OWNERlSHIP OP THE EARTH 
Belongs to Man— Belongs to All Men— Biblical Authority— The Scientific De- 
fense — The Monopolist and Nature — The Beginning — The Forming of the Planets 
—The Making of the Earth's Surface — ^The Beginning and the Ending — Not a 
Question of Intentions— Evolution— Pre-conscious Development — The Right of the 
Most Conscious— Man and the Rest of Nature— The Earth and Man— The Plant 
Und Its Flower— Mutual Adaptation— Monopoly and Collectivism— Private Titles 
Based on Force— The Evil of Monopoly— Inherent in the Nature of Things— Sum- 

*'^'^^' CHAPTER XVI 

ElELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACIES 
The Fall of Democracy— The Struggle for Democracy— Political Democracies 
.Ajmong Industrial Masters— The Early Church'— Ecclesiastical Rebels— Calvinistic 
Churches— The Windsor Constitution— American Industrial and Political Dem- 
ocracy—Lincoln on Labor and Capital— The Populist Party— A Shop Without a 
Boss— The Plutocrat, the Democrat and Socialism— Summary. 

CHAPTER XVII 

MODERN SCIENCTS AND SOCIALISM 
iModem (Science— The Wickedness of Growth— Old Records— Recent Investiga- 
tions— Law of Social Growth— The Social Compact— Taken for Granted— "Abroga- 
tion of Contracts"— New Life Must Abrogate Old Forms— Science the Shackle 
Breaker— Science and Inventions— In Manufactures— In Agriculture— Growing 
Toward Socialism— Sanitary Science— Science and Crime— Uncultivated Fruits- 
Uncultivated Grains— Uncultivated Men— Conscious Selection and Socialism- 
Summary. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

MACHINE PEODDCTION AND COLLECTIVISM 
Aristotle on Machinery— Joint Ownership and Use— Co-operation Necessary- 
Drudgery Unnecessary— Machinery and the World Market— Concentration and 
Private Ownership— Easy Transition to Collective Ownership — A Hired Manage- 
ment—Beginnings of Future Forms of Organization— Industrial Departments In 
the Government— Labor Organizations and the Departments— Labor Organizations 
and Political Power— Transforming the Government— The Evolution of Socialism- 
Summary. 

CHAPTER XEX 

UTOPIAS, COLONIES, CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES AND SCIENTIFIC 

SOCIALISM 
Dreams Which Nations Dream— Ancestry— Communism and Socialism- 
Primeval (Survivals- A New Defense for Old Proposals— Before the Doctrine ot 
Evolution— On a Small Scale— Service of the Utopians— Benefits of Co-operation- 
Co-operative Stores— Co-operative Communities— Chances for Unity— Waiting ft)r 
Returns— Under Suspicion— Enmity of the Courts— Bishop Hill— Rtuskin Colony— 



12 

Greatest Enterprises Out of Reach— An Unequal Battle— World-Wide Conflict- 
Co-operative Organization a Public Function— Socialists and Co-operators— All 
Corporations Perform Public Functions— A Township Against a Cpntinent— The 
Evolution of Socialism— Summary. 

CHAPTER XX 

THE GROWTH OF THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITT OF THE RACB 
Tribal Solidarity— A Completer Individuality— Primitive Ignorance of Earth 
and Man— World Conquest and Race Solidarity— The Great Religions— Into 
All Nations to Trade With Them— Miodern Industry— Vital Race Relationships— The 
Warm Blood Current of the Race Life— United Testimony of the Sciences— The 
Poets and Prophets— Industry and Politics Must Develop with the Race Ufe- 
Highest Incentive to Action— Capitalism Outgrown— Socialism and Solidarity- 
Capitalism the Builder of Socialism— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXI 

THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 

The Economic Classes — Fixing the Class Lines — All Wars, Class Wars 

Conflicts Between the Exploiters — Ruling Classes and Prevailing Morals Thd 

Evolution of the Class Struggle— Conflicting Economic Interests— Class Con- 
sciousness—The Irrepressible Warfare— The Evolution of Socialism— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXII 

THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM AND THE TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM 
The Inevitable Collapse— If Capitalism Remains— Need Not Remain— Fallur* 
of Incentive Under Capitalism— Producing for the Products— Filling the Store- 
house with Leisure for All— End of Monopoly, Tyranny and Inequality— Conclu* 
Bions— Summary. 



PART IV 



SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY BETWEEN 
CAPITALISTS AND SOCIALISTS 



CHAPTER rXIII 
FOR WHAT PURPOSES MAT THE STATE EXIST 
The Struggle to Survive— Government a Factor in the Struggle to Survive— 
Self Preservation- The Social Struggle— The Abuse of Power— Class Rule and 
Self-Government — Public Powers Controlled to be Abused— The Government and 
Business Enterprises— Industrial and Political Self-Government— Socialism and 
the Government— Socialism Will Deliver the State from the Hands of Its Foes- 
Do Socialists Propose the Abuse of Public Power— Individuality Established and 
Defended Under Socialism— The End of the Oppressor— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 
The Economists— The English School— The Historical School— "The Dismal 
Science"— The Field of Study— May Learn the Next Step— Is Capitalism Natural 
—Capitalism of Recent Origin— The Origin of Capital— Walker's Account— Theories 
Facing Facts^John Stuart Mill and the Duke of Argyll— War the Origin of Capital 
— The^ Right to Buy and Sell— Labor a Commodity— 'Self Interest— Economic 
Justice— Letting Things Alone — "The Iron Law of Wages"— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXV 

THEORIES OF VALUE 
The Exhange of Products— Power in Exchange— The Economists and Socialism 
—All Theories Lead to iSocialism— Theories of Value— Utility— Scarcity— Difficulty 
of Attainment— "Competitive and Socialistic"— Labor and the Produce of Labor- 
Marginal Utility— Labor and Machinery— Justifying Ejcploitationr-^S'upply and 
Demand— 'Service for Service— Monopoly and Value— Theft Not Exchange— Who, 
Not What, Produces Value— The Share of Nature— Machinery— Human Energy 
and the Landlord, the Capitalist and the Laborer— The Record of Tyranny- 
Summary. 



13 

CHAPTER XXVI 

JUSTICE IN EXCHANGE (THE MONET QUESTION) 
The Origin of Money— The Necessity for Money— Not at First the Creation 
)f Law — Earliest Forms of Money — Necessary Qualities — Its Functions — A Medium 
}f Exchange— A Measure of "Value— Value— A Common Quality of All Goods— 
ApTJlylng the Measure— Both Medium and Measure— A Standard for Deferred 
Payments — Debtor and Creditor — ^The Relation Between Other ^things and Dol- 
lars—Bank Made Money— The Multiple Standard— No (Solution Under Capitalism- 
Summary. 

CHAPTER XXVII 

THEORIES OF POPULATION 
The Law of Increase— The Struggle to Exist— Limited Powers of Production— 
[ncreasing and Diminishing Returns — When the Last Acre is in Use — In the 
Year 2400— The Gloomiest Page in Economics— An Old Problem— Absurd Proposals 
to Limit Population— A Knowledge of Natural Causes— Over Population Unneces- 
sary—Safe Conditions Impossible under Capitalism— Forbidding the Poor to 
Marry— Genius and the Poor— Giving the World to the Backward Races- 
Capitalism Unable to Use the Earth— Unable to Develop Its Resources— Pestilence 
and Famine No Relief — Socialism and the Causes of Over Population — Maternal 
Distress — Over Work and Mental Neglect— Self-Control— Can Use the Earth- 
Hake the Desert Blossom — ^The Unwelcome Child. 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT 
The Joint Producers— The Landlord— The Capitalist— The Manager— The 
Laborer — ^The Division of Products — What is Rent — The Single Tax — Fixed Im- 
provements—Land Titles and Other Property— Socialists and the Single Tax- 
Unearned Benefits— Who Pays the Rent— No Escape— The Appeal to Conscience— 
"Indemnification" for "Unearned Benefits"— Buying One's Own Birthright- 
Services and Limitations of the Single Tax— Thrift, .Saving and Interest— Risk- 
Share of the Profits— Profit and Superintendence— The Skillfully Managed— The 
Laborer's Right Unstated— The Real Question— The Answer— The Prison House 
of Toil- The Way Out is Socialism. 



PART V 
CURRENT PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC INTEREST AND SOCIALISM 



CHAPTER XXIX 

FINE ARTS AND (SOCIALISM 
What is Art— The Industrial and the Fine Arts— Word Pictures and Oratory- 
Form and Color— Life, Love and Art— Joy of Life the Source of Art — Capitalism 
Cuts Off the Sources of Art— Loss of Leisure— "Worn Out"— Deaf and Blind- 
Patronage and Monopoly — Natural Beauty and Commercial Ugliness — Never Seeing 
the World — Art is Social— The Art Gallery and the Market Place— Art and the 
Fashion Plates— Wrecking the Masterpiece— Capitalism Doing Its Best— Strength 
and Beauty— Artists Are Socialists— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXX 

RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 
The Thinking Animal— Oldest Instincts— Moving and Motionless— Living and 
Dead— The Breath of Life— The Origin of Worship— Fetishism, the Worship of 
Things — Polytheism, or Many Masters of Groups of Things — One Good and One 
Evil Spirit, Masters of All— Common Grounds of Scholarship of All Creeds- 
Evolution of Religion — Beginnings of Organization — Cannibalism — The Families of 
Gods — The Gods of War — Religion and Slavery — The Jews, the Romans and the 
Tribal Gods— The One Military Master and the One God^The Ancient Priesthood 
—The Law of Growth— Great Services of the Church— The Unity of All Nature— 
The Highest Religion— The Order of Advance— Capitalism and Rellgrion and the 
Right to Think— The Mastery of Wealth— The Eellgious Teacher and His Training 
—Work and Worship— The Slaughter of Intelligence— Socialism and Religion— 
ReligloiM Convictions a Private Matter— Brotherhood^— Supporting the Church- 
Boundless Opportunity Under Socialism— Sximmary. 



14 
CHAPTER XXXI 

EDUCATION AND .SOCIATJISM 

The Old Education— The Business Education— The New Education— A Better 
Marliet or a Better Life — Brealiing With Ideals to Hold Employment — The Clash 
between the Market and the Schools— Training Masteis and Servants— Corrupt- 
ing the iSchools— Falsifying Text Books— The Factory Child and the Public 
Schools — Labor and Learning — The Hired Boss and His Neglected Learning — 
Socialism and Learning— The Workshop and the School— The Ideals of the 
Schools and the Tasks of Real Life — Summary. 

CHAPTER XXXII 

THE FARMEOa AND SOCIALISM 

Untaken Land— America Before the Civil War— The Disappearing Wage 
Worker— Independent Self-Support— iSelf-Employed— No Inheritance of Dependence— 
Under the Yoke — Loss of Independence — Occupation of the Land— Machinery— The 
Narrowing Process — Specialization in Farming — The Small Farm — Salaried Super- 
intendents — Why Half a Farm — Millionaire Ranchmen — Surrender for Lack cf 
Outlet — The Surplus Farmer's Boy — "Middle Class" Farmers — The Largest Group 
of the Working Class— The Agricultural Working Class— A Bare Existence- 
Public Ownership— Public Loans— Farmer and Capitalist— Socialism and the 
Farmer— The Farmer's' Family— Eiilarging Life and ReB,tori,ng Llbei-ty- The 
Way Out—Summary. 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIALISM 

The Middle Class— The Subject Stated— Numbers of the Various Classes- 
Economic Classes and Political Parties— Socialists and the Working Class- 
Middle Class Measures— ^Only Two Parties Possible— Economic Interests both 
Ways— Acting with the Capitalists— Acting with the Working Class— Small 
Properties— Exploitation at the Shop Door— The Millionaire— Emptiness of the 
Master's Life— The^Riddle of the Middle Class— The Sifting of the Wheat— A 
Call to Workers Only— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE TRUST, IMPERIALISM AND SOCIALISM 

The Evolution of the Trust— The Problem and the Solution Proposed— Pub- 
licity-Government Control— Limiting Industrial Organization— The Tariff and 
the Trust— National Collective Ownership— Completing the Social Revolution— 
A Resistless Current— Universal War- The Motive for Action— One World Military 
Power— The Family of Nations— One World Commercial Power— Military and 
Commercial Imperialism— Industrial Democracy— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXXV 

LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 

Medieval Towns— The Guilds— The Wage System— Labor Organizations- 
Great Service of the Unions — Labor Organizations — London Working Men — Fall of 
the Bastile— American Revolution— In the Civil War- Story of the Class Struggle 
— The Old Unionism — The Hopeless Beginning — A World Movement — Unionism and 
Socialism— Scope of Service— The Schools and the Unions— Socialism and Unionism 
—Shorter Hours— Increased Rewards— Employment for All— International Competi- 
tion of the Workers— Industrial Organization— Must Administer the Government 
—In Politics— Endorsing Candidates—The Shop Door and the Ballot Box— Union 
Not a Political Party— A Working Program— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

MUNICIPAL MISRULE AND SOCIALISM 

Majority Always for Good Government— Both Parties Alike In City Rule- 
Corrupt Social Forces— Tax Dodgers— Corporations— Professional Politicians- 
Purchasable Voters— Always False Issues— Pooling Interests by Corrupt Forces- 
Socialism and Municipal Misrule — Tax Dodgers, Corporations, Politicians and the 
Socialists— Why no Purchasable Voters under Socialism— While Capitalism Re- 
mains—Corrupting Forces Put Together and Out of Power— Keeping Them Out 
-Nummary. 



15 
CHAPTER XXXVII 

UNJUST TAXATION AND SOCIALISM 

Justice in Taxation Impossible— Indirect Taxation— Property Which Can be 
Hidden— Cannot be Hidden, Held in Small Holdings— Cannot be Hidden, Held in 
Large Holdings— Public Charges Under Socialism— Taxation Under a Local 
Socialist Administration— Oppressive Taxation and Socialism— Who Pays the 
Taxes'— Equalization of Collective Burdens— Big and Little Tax Payers— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII 

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND SOCIALISM 

The Collective Public— Collective Ownership— Bismarck— Free Ridea and Rents 
and Wag-es- A Concession in the Argument— A Step in Evolution— An Important 
Admission — Some Advantages — Public Ownership of the Means of Producing the 
Means of Life— Industrial Democracy— Summary. 

CHAPTER XXXIX 

THE CIVIL SERVICE AND SOCIALISM 

"The Coming Slavery"— The Civil Service— Self-Governing Service— Post 
Office Employes and the President — Limited Employment — The Incompetent and 
the Unemployed— Self Employment for All— Self Government by All— Loss of 
Self Control— More Democracy— The Current Slavery— Management by the Com- 
petent—The Dismissal of the Shop Spy — Just and Rational Promotion — Summary. 

CHAPTER XL 

STATUS OF WOMAN AND SOCIALISM 

Disfranchised Women— Economic Dependence— Primitive Self-Government— 
The (Soldier and the Master— Voting Instead of Fighting— Limited Franchise of 
Workingmen — Disfranchised at the Shops — Socialists and Equal Suffrage — Self- 
Government of the Women at Work— Equal Industrial and Political Rights for 
^1 — ^Women in Politics — ^Industrial Eraancipation — Summary. 

CHAPTER XLI, 

THE RACE PROBLEM AND SOCIALISM 

Its Importance— The Chinese Question— The Negro Question— Race Competi' 
tion— Industrial Training— Disfrachisement— Forbidding Marriages— Transporting— 
"A White Man's World" — Chinese Exclusion — Race Antagonism and Economic 
Interests— Mastery and Servitude— Labor Unions and the Race War— Illiterates- 
Illiteracy and Socialism — An Italian Example— Hating Because Fighting, Not 
Fighting Because Hating— Slandering the Enemy— Race Hatred and Robbery- 
Competing for Jobs — Socialism Ends the Economic War — Necessary Race Differ- 
ences Remain— End of Race Robbery and Hatred— Summary. 

CHAPTER XLII 

THE TRAFFIC IN VICE AND SOCIALISM 

What is Vice— Drugs— Trifling With Life— Games of Chance— The Traffic In 
Vice— Stimulants and Narcotics Un*er Capitalism— The Traffic in Women— The 
Gamblers— Sports Are Survivals— Gambling the Rule of the Market— "A Roaring 
Farce"— Prohibition— The Saloon— Total Abstinence — Summary. 

CHAPTER XLIII 

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIALISM 

Primitive Co-operation Not Charity— ^Slaves and Serfs Not Victims of Charity 
—End of Personal Relations between Masters and Servants— The Early Church 
pad Mutual Aid Among the Slaves— Public Provision for Roman Citizens- 
Guilds, Mutual Aid— Not Charity Organizations— Confiscation of Church Property 
^Beginning of the Poor Laws— Modern Charity— Exchanging Self-Respect for 
Bread- Hospitals and Asylums— Socialism and the Helpless— Mutual Dependence 
^The Crippled, the Blind, the Aged— Victims of Social Neglect— The Shameless 
Compromise of a Hopeless Bankrupt— Tomorrow All Are Helpless— Mutual Aid 
Among the Poor— Franternity— Loss of the Fraternal Spirit— The Days of Trial— 
Provoking Ev}l— "Falling Upward"— Summary. " 



16 

PART VI 
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA 



CHAPTER XLIV 

THE NATURE OF A POLITICAL. PARTY 
A Means of Escaping War— The Last Alternative— The Record— The Revolu- 
tionary Parties— Tlie Parties of the Constitution— Washington's Cabinet— End ol 
the Federalists— Whigs and Democrats— Back Sighted— The Northwest Territory- 
Land Speculators and Plantation Owners— Surrender or Fight— Voting and Fight- 
ing—Ordinary Issues— The Referendum— Exceeding the Power of the Referendum 
—No Political Parties— Mere Appetites for Office— There is a Real Question— A 
Part of the Legal Machinery— The Primary and Election Laws— National Parties 
Purely Voluntary— New Parties— Petitions— Disfranchising Minorities— Summary. 

CHAPTER XLV 

THE SOCIALIST PARTY 
Early Organizations— Half a Century Ago— Other Countries— The Populists- 
Imported Socialism — Inherent in American Life — Economics and Polities — Only 
Two Sides— The American Vanguard— Her Historical Trend Toward Socialism- 
Partisan Pitfalls— Fusion— Capture by Its Foes— Primary Laws— No National 
Primary Laws — Limiting the Membership — Heresy Trials— Withholding Charters- 
Only Rational Methods Can Prevail— Disfranchisement a Failure— The Only Safe- 
Guard— Discipline of Politicians by Politicians— Censorship— "Doctrinal Purity" 
■ — Voice of the Minority — Free Speech and Majority Rule — Summary. 

CHAPTER XLVI 

A QUESTION BOX 
Equal Income?— The Helpless ?— The Lazy?— Boss Rule under iSocialIsm?— Don't 
the Machines Earn Anything ?— The Family?— The Church?— The State ?— Incentive ? 
—Class Hate?— Low Motives ?— Robbing the Rich?— Equality of Races?— Paying 
Dues? 

CHAPTER XLVII 

HOW TO WORK FOR SOCIALISM 
Previous Training— Choosing the Place of Battle— A Blank Book— Your Coun- 
try — Selecting Your Jury — Men to Avoid — Whom to Select — Where to Begin- 
How to Reach Them — Conversations — Correspondence — Organization — Cash — Litera- 
ture — A Worker's Library — Public Meetings — Classes for Study. 

CHAPTER XLVIII 

THE FINAL SUMMARY 
A Comrade's Greeting— In the Infancy of Our Race— Tusks and Claws— Primitive 
Achievements— Civilization— Evolution of Capitalism— Evolution of Socialism— Social 
and Economic Controversies — Current Problems— Organization. 



The Struggle for Existence 

PART I 

CLEARING THE GROUND 



CHAPTER I 

CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM 

1. The Means of Life.— Man cannot live without 
food, fuel, clothing and shelter. He cannot live well 
without homes, books, pictures, music, literature, gar- 
dens, places of pleasure, and transportation for him- 
self and his belongings, together with the leisure for 
their enjoyment. 

2. Their Sources.— Nature has provided in abun- 
dance the raw materials out of which the skill and 
industry of the workers may provide all these things, 
and the great improvements of modern industry have 
so increased the productive power of the workers that 
abundance for all can be produced and the working 
day so shortened that there will be ample leisure for 
all. 

3. Monopoly.— But the lands, tools, shops, store- 
houses and transportation lines are legally owned by 
the few, and the many can use none of these things ex- 
cept with the consent of the few who are the legal own- 



18 CLEARING THE GROUND. Part I 

ers. The many cannot live except they use these things 
to produce the means of life, and hence it is that the 
many cannot live at all except on terms named by 
the few.^ 

4. Tyranny.— The legal owners, moreover, do not 
consent that the workers shall use either the natural 
resources or the tools of industry except the legal own- 
ers keep control of both the natural resources and the 
tools of industry while in use, and so the few reserve 
to themselves the right of mastery over the many 
while using them and hence the many must live as the 
servants of the few, or not at all.^ 

5. Inequality.— Again, the legal owners of the 
lands, tools, shops, store-houses and transportation 
lines, appropriate to themselves the total product of 
the industries, consenting that the workers shall have 
for themselves and those dependent on them only the 
barest subsistence. The legal owners do not guar- 
antee that the workers shall always have an oppor- 
tunity to be employed, even on' these terms. The legal 
owners insist on the right to employ whom they will, 
for such hours as the legal owners shall name, requir- 
ing such speed in the work as the legal owners shall 

1. "The time once was when the ownership and control of prop- 
erty were largely coincident. We have been gradually, and for tl e 
most part unconsciously, growing away from these conditions in our 
endeaA'or to secure economies of modern production, and at the same 
time retain the institution of private property unchanged." — Jones: 
Economic Crises, p. 52. 

2. "The possession of the means of livelihood gives to the capital- 
ists the control of the government, the press, the pulpit, and the 
schools, and enables them to reduce the workmgmen to a state of in- 
tellectual, physical and social inferiority, political subservience and 
virtual slavery." — National Platform of the Socialist Party of America, 
adopted at Indianapolis, 1901. 

"The whole system of capitalistic production is based on the 
fact that the workman sells his labor-power as a commodity." — Marx: 
Capital, p. 431. 

"There is no principle of justice which gives first terms [conditions] 
into the hands of one individual as if they were his alone. When they 
lapse into his possession, thei slip must be corrected at once." — Basconi: 
Sociology, p. 228. 



Chap. I CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM 19 

choose, and paying such wages as the legal owners 
shall determine. 

6. No Legal Right to Life.— If the legal owners 
choose to refuse employment to any particular worker, 
he is not admitted, under capitalism, or under the laws 
of any country on earth, to have any legal right to an 
opportunity of any sort to earn a living of any kind, 
not necessarily because of any fault of his, but simply 
because '^no one hath hired him."^ If the worker 
proves himself of great value to his master, his master 
may improve the lot of such a worker— not because of 
any regard for that particular worker, or because of 
any lack of regard for other workers, but simply be- 
cause it pays the master better to do so. 

7. Inherited Mastery and Servitude.— A child born 
in the family of the legal owner may inherit pro- 
ductive property, and through this private ownership, 
by inheritance of the lands and tools which others 
must use, he is born to be their master as they are to 
be his servants, again, not because of the fault of 
either the servant or the master, but because this is 
inherent in capitalism. 

All this results in the great wealth of the few, who 
create no wealth, and the great poverty of the many, 
who create all wealth. 

3. "The four cardinal tenets of Trade Unionism the world over 
are : ( 1 ) That employes shall have the right to say how long they 
shall work. (2) How much work they shall turn out. (3) How 
much they shall get for it. (4) Who shall be employed. The Trade 
Unionist declares in the abstract that these principles are non-arbitra- 
ble. * * * The critical examination of the demands made by the 
modern Trade Unionist will show that they contain the seed of Indus-, 
trial destruction." This is taken from a secret circular mailed only 
to employers of labor by the American Manufacturers* Association. 
The circular argues at length in opposition to these propositions, con- 
tending that the employers only shall determine the length of the 
day's work, the amount of the product required, and the wages to be 
paid, and insists that if the workingmen are to be heard on these ques- 
tions it means industrial destruction. 

The able-bodied man without money and begging for employment 
may be jailed as a vagrant in every State in the IJnion. 



20 (1J.KARJNG THE GROUND Part 1 

8. Collectivism.— On the other hand, the Social- 
ists insist that the lands, tools, shops, store-houses and 
transportation lines, so far as they are collectively 
used by all of the people, ought to be owned by all of 
the people.^ Then the many would not depend on the 
few, for the consent of the few, for the many to stay 
alive; nor would the many be obliged to bargain with 
the few in order to secure the opportunity to produce 
the means of life, such things as food, fuel, clothing 
and shelter. 

9. Democracy.— Again, the Socialists contend that 
those who do the world 's work ought themselves 
to manage the work they do. Then the relation of 
mastery and servitude would cease, and self-govern- 
ment would extend to the field of every day's activities 
and control by the common voice of all the toilers all 
the interests held in common by all the toilers. 

10. Equality.— And finally, the Socialists con- 
tend that all men and women shall have an equal op- 
portunity to become workers, if they shall so choose,^ 
with equal voice in the management of industries car- 
ried on with the collective use of the collectively owned 
lands, tools, shops, store-houses and transportation 



4. "The Socialist Party of America, in national convention as- 
sembled, reaffirms its adherence to the principles of International So- 
cialism, and declares its aim to be the organization of the working 
class, and those in sympathy with it, into a political party, with the 
object of conquering the powers of government and using them for the 
purpose of transforming the present system of private ownership of 
the means of production anJ distribution jni.-^ a collective ownership 
by the entire people." — National Platform of tn. 'Socialist Party of 
America, adopted at Indianapolis, 1901. 

5. "Not only do we owe it to ourselves to pursue a serious Cf"- 
ing, but likewise to society at large. The man who refuses to work hi 
some way or. other lives at others' expense. This is no less true of 
one who idly spends his inheritance than of the professional beggar or 
thief. From the legal point of view the former consumes what belongs 
to him and does no wrong; from the moral standpoint, however — 
that is, in reality — he accepts the products of others without making 
any return; he lives as a parasite at the table of the people, without 
helping to defray the costs." — Paulsen: A System of Ethics, p. 533. 



Chap. I CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM 21 

lines, with all the products belonging to the workers 
themselves to be divided among them as the workers 
alone shall determine. 

11. Under Socialism.— Then, inasmuch as all men 
and women would have the opportunity to be produc- 
ers, with the free use of the lands, tools, shops, store- 
houses and transportation lines; and inasmuch as no 
one would then have the power, through private owner- 
ship of the industries, where others toil, or through 
the private management of the industries, where others 
are employed, or through the private appropriation of 
the products which others produce, either to enrich 
himself or to exercise the power of mastery over 
others, then the great unmerited poverty of the majay 
and the great unearned wealth of the few, together with 
all industrial despotism, must disappear.^ 

12. Summary.— 1. Capitalism is the private owner- 
ship by the few of what the many must collectively 
use. Socialism is the collective ownership by the many 
of what the many must collectively use. 

2. Capitalism is the private management, by the 
few, of the work which the many must do collectively. 
Socialism is the collective, democratic management by 
the many, of the work which the many must do col- 
lectively. 

3. Capitalism is the private appropriation, by the 
few, of the products of the many with no one able to 
produce without the consent of some private owner. 
Socialism is the appropriation, by the many, for the 

6. "Property [in the means of production] is today a lie for the 
majority of men, a robbery for the minority. Socialism would make 
property the possession of everyone. It would convert it into a truth, 
secure to the worker within society the full proceeds of his labor 
and destroy the capitalistic system of plunder from its foundation. 
* * * Our end is: The free democracy with equal economic and 
political rights; the free society with associative labor. The welfare 
of all is for us the one end of the state and society," — Liebknecht: 
Socialism, What It Is and What It Seeks to Accomplish, p. 23. 



22 ^ CLEAKING THE GROUND Part I 

individual and private possession and use of the many, 
of the products produced by themselves, with equal op- 
portunity for all men and women to be producers, if 
they shall so choose. 

Capitalism involves the unmerited wealth of those 
who are idle, and the unmerited poverty of those who 
are the creators of all wealth. Socialism involves the 
wealth of those who merit wealth by becoming its pro- 
ducers, and the poverty of those, only, if such there be, 
who, having the opportunity to live in comfort, choose 
rather the merited poverty, the fruits of voluntary idle- 
ness. 

Our Purpose. 

By what process did capitalism come to be? How 
did the few get possession of the natural resources and 
of the tools which all must use or perish ! Why do the 
many submit to this needless tyranny of the few 1 Why 
do the many continue to surrender the wealth their toil 
produces to make millionaires of others while they re- 
main in such pitiless poverty themselves? 

Whence come these proposals of the Socialists? 
On what grounds do they rest their claims? By what 
process has the movement grown in power? What de- 
fense has their position among the thoughtful and sin- 
cere students of affairs? What effect will the coming 
of Socialism have on the most serious interests of life 
and the great social problems of the hour? Can these 
proposals of the Socialists be adopted, and if so, by 
what means can a worker contribute most to a peaceful 
and speedy victory of the Socialists ? 

To answer these questions is the purpose of this 
volume. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What are the means of life? 

2. What are the means of producing the means of life? 

3. Are the means of production and the workers, ready and 
able to use the means of production, abundant ? Defend your reply. 



Chap. I CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM 23 

4. If so, why do not the workers proceed to produce and keep for 
thiBir own use suifieient for their needs? 

5. WTiy are tlie workers obliged to get the consent of those who 
do not work before they are able to produce the means of life ? 

6. To what relation must all workers now submit before they are 
permitted to earn a living for themselves and families ? 

7. Are the children of the workers born to be the servants of 
others ? 

8. What results from this dependence and subordination of those 
who work as related to those who do not work? 

9. Give three points of contrast between what prevails under 
capitalism and what would prevail under Socialism. 



CHAPTEE n 

FIRST PRINCIPLE6 

13. In the Beginning.— Until recently it has been 
the custom of thoughtful people to account for the 
coming into existence of the earth and of all forms of 
life and of all social institutions on the earth— by as- 
suming that in the beginning some force or forces were 
at work which are no longer actings or at least, are not 
acting as subject to the natural laws now known to be 
in operation. It was formerly supposed that only by 
making some such assumption could the main facts of 
life be reasonably explained. 

But it is now quite generally agreed by all thought- 
ful students of nature that we may look upon and 
directly study all of the forces and processes necessary 
to give a rational explanation of all of the main facts 
of life, including the process by which man himself 
came to his present perfect. physical form. 

14. The Struggle for Existence. — It is true, 
throughout all nature, that no form of life can long 
exist except it struggles for existence. It is true that 
the very struggle develops the organs used for that 
struggle. It is true that any individual peculiarity 
which may make the struggle a successful one by en- 
abling its possessor to survive, will also survive. It is 

24 



Chap. II FIRST PRINCIPLES 25 

plain that, any individual peculiarity which may make 
the struggle fail, by causing its possessor to disappear, 
such peculiarity would also disappear. Now, every 
form of life is constantly acted upon by all the forces 
and conditions which surround it. Is it not clear that 
those individuals whose organs are best fltted to the 
conditions or forces acting upon them, or that are 
able to use those organs in a way best fitted to the 
conditions or forces acting upon them, are the most 
likely to survive in their struggle for existence as 
against changing or adverse conditions and in the face 
of destructive natural forces f ^ 

15. The Collective Struggle.— In the same way, 
those great groups of individuals whose members are 
born one from another, and have the same organs and 
the same general bodily functions— those groups, in 
their struggle against all other groups, would be most 
likely to survive which were found in the actual strug- 
gle to be best equipped for the purposes of the strug- 
gle. In the same way, those groups best able and 
most disposed to guard each other in the struggle 
with other groups and to help each other to survive 
within their own groups, by making joint provisions 
against adverse conditions and destructive natural 
forces, would be most likely to survive.^ 

16. Constant Changes and Survivals.— Now, all na- 
ture is in the process of constant change. Any changes 
in any of the forms of life which place the new forms 
of life at a disadvantage in the struggle for existence, 
mean that the new forms will cease to exist. Any 

1. Darwin: Origin of Species, Chapter III. 

2. "The change that has been made in the point of view of eco- 
nomics by the present generation is * * * due to the discovery that 
man himself is in a great measure a creature of circumstances and 
changes with them; and the importance of this discovery has been 
accentuated by the fact that the growth of knowledge and earnestness 
has recently made and is making deep and rapid changes in human na- 
ture." — Marshall: Present Position of Economics (Inaugural Lecture, 
Cambridge University, 1885), pp. 12-13. 



26 CLEARING THE GROUND Part 1 

changes which place the new forms at a better ad- 
vantage mean that the new forms will survive and 
that a new form has thus appeared as a new form in 
nature. Continue this process long enough, change 
the conditions often enough, follow the forms of life 
up from the sea, up from the soil, down from the trees, 
into the erect position, into the development of new 
tools for new tasks rather than new organs for new 
tasks, into the more effective struggle for existence 
by creating organized groups, tribes, nations, rather 
than attempting a further and impossible improvement 
in the organic structure of the individual, and you have 
accounted for man's existence and have discovered 
the method of his advance.^ 

17. The Higher from the Lower Forms.— You have 
not accounted for the natural forces, but you have 
not been obliged to assume the existence of any force 

3. " * * * The creation of man was by no means the creation 
of a perfect being. The most essential feature of man is his im- 
provableness, and since his first appearance on the earth the changes 
that have gone on in him have been enormous, though they have con- 
tinued to run along in lines that were then marked out. The changes 
have been so great that in many respects the interval between the 
the highest and the lowest men far surpasses quantatively the interval 
between the lowest men and the highest apes. If we take into account 
the creasing of the cerebral surface, the brain of a Shakespeare and 
that of an Australian savage would doubtless be fifty times greater than 
the difference between the Australian's brain and that of an orang- 
outang. In mathematical capacity the Australian, who cannot tell 
the number of fingers on his two hands, is much nearer to a lion or 
a wolf than he is to Sir Rowan Hamilton, who invented the method 
of quaternions. In moral development this same Australian, whose 
language contains no word for justice and benevolence, is less remote 
from dogs and baboons than from a Howard or a Garrison. The Aus- 
tralian is more teachable than the ape, but his limit is nevertheless 
very quickly reached. All the distinctive attributes of man, in short, 
have been developed to an enormous extent through the long ages 
of social evolution. 

"This psychical development of man is destined to go on in the 
future as it has gone on in the past. The creative energy whicli 
has been at work through this bygone eternity is not going to become 
quiescent tomorrow. From what has already gone on during the his- 
toric period of man's existence, we can safely -^predict a change that 
will by and by distinguish him from all other creatures even more 
widely and more fundamentally than he is distinguished today." — 
Fiske: Destiny of Man, pp. 71-73. 



^11 AP. II riRST PRINCIPLES 27 

wMeh you cannot now see in existence. You liave not 
accounted for the constant changes in all forms of life, 
but you can see such changes going on all around you. 
You have explained the development of the higher 
forms of life from the lower forms of life, and you have 
done so by simply extending through long periods of 
time, the action of the forces which you see now in 
operation. All this results from the struggle for ex- 
istence, the individual struggling against other indi- 
viduals as well as against adverse natural conditions 
and forces, and the members of the same groups strug- 
gling for each other and against all other groups as 
well as against adverse natural conditions and forces. 
This is found by actual observation to be the process 
of all organic physical development, and, as we shall 
see further on, of all social progress.^ 

18. Argument for the Theory of Development.— 
That we may see the full force of this truth and be 
better able to follow the arguments of all succeeding 
pages, consider some of the proofs, not that this is a 
possible and rational explanation, but that it is, in all 
likelihood, the real and the only possible explanation 
of the method of development:— 

19. The Human Embryo.— 1. This whole theory of 
development was first suggested by the study of the 

4. "In life and in history every man suffers whatever fate is 
conditioned by his natural constitution. Yet his natural constitution 
depends not on him, but, as we have seen, upon the social medium from 
which he emerges. This is to blame if individual fates are so seldom 
proportional to individual merits. For fate strikes the individual in 
proportion to the merits of the species, so to speak. His own merits 
may be different. Historical development cares nothing for that 
"" * * The course and events of history are commensurate with 
the character and conditions of the social media; and this we must 
recognize as historical justice. There is none other in history or even 
m nature. 

"Hence the alpha and omega of sociology, its highest perception 
and final word is : human history a natural process ; * * * it preaches 
most impressively man's renunciatory subordination to the laws of na- 
ture which alone rule history." — Gumplowicz: Outlines of Sociology, 
p. 213. 



28 CLEARING THE GROUND Part I 

growth of the human embryo. It was noticed that the 
embryo of a child, forming in its mother's womb, be- 
gins with the simplest known form of life, and by a 
constant shifting of forms, from the simpler to the 
more perfect forms, it assumes every possible simpler 
form, fish, amphibian, reptile and mammal, until at 
last it reaches the form of man.^ 

It is held that this is so, because the race has 
passed through all these simpler forms before reaching 
the form of man. This order of development is equally 
true of the embryo of all lower forms of life. They 
all pass through all lower forms before reaching their 
own. A human embryo, of a certain growth, has a tail 
longer than its legs; at another and later growth it 
has a complete covering of hair; at birth it sometimes 
has the '' blow-holes " of a fish still open in its neck, 
and always at birth the strongly developed grip in 
its hands which indicates an earlier stage of human 
development when clinging to the boughs of trees was 
the habit of the race.® The theory of development ex- 
plains all this. No other explanation is possible. 

20. Rudimentary Survivals.— 2. There are numer- 
ous organs in the body for which man has now no use, 
but which are of service in the simpler forms of life. 
They are believed to be survivals from those simpler 
forms of life. The muscles for whipping the ears, for 
shaking the scalp, for using the tail, the three to five 
bony joints of the tail still found at the base of the 
back, though overgrown; the vermiform appendix, 
which in grass-eating animals is of great size and ol 
great service, but which in man shrivels after birth, 
and, while it performs no known function in the hu- 
man economy, it remains always a point of danger,— 
are instances of such survivals. It is claimed that npt 

5. Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., p. 340. 

6. Alfred Russell Wallace: Malay Archipelago, p. 53. 



Chap.II first principles 29 

fewer than seventy sncli survivals are found in tlie 
human body, none of which perform any known func- 
tion, all of which are of use in lower forms of life, but 
which remain in man as so many perpetual witnesses 
of the process of the making of the human form J 

Make bare your arm and 'notice how the scattering 
hair on the hands and arms is arranged. On the hand 
and forearm it points away from the wrists; on the 
arm, both above and below the elbow, it points toward 
the elbow. Now place yourself in a stooped-over posi- 
tion, as if sitting and balancing yourself in a tree; 
raise your wrists to your ears; drop your hands for- 
ward and downward; extend on either side your elbows 
and imagine a heavy coating of hair on head and hands 
and arms, and you can see yourself heavily thatched 
with hair extending downward from the crown of your 
head and ready to protect you from the storm. Just 
such a position is now taken, in time of storm, by the 
orang, whose hair is arranged in the same way and 
evidently for the same purpose.^ 

The theory of development explains all this. No 
other theory can. 

21. The Record of the Rocks.— 3. When geologists 
began the study of the rocks, they not only discovered 
evidences which confirmed the theory of development, 
but they found the proof of the great age of the world, 
of the passing of the countless centuries required for 
the slow development of the higher forms of life. They 
discovered that all rocks were in conditions which in- 
dicated their origin by processes which would require 
great periods of time for their formation. They found 
two classes of rocks, the water-laid and the fire-fused. 
The water-laid rocks were nearest the surface, and 

7. For popular discussion of vestigial organs, see Drummond's 
Ascent of Man, Chapter II. 

8. Romanes: Darwin and After Darwin^ pp. 89-92, 



30 CLEARING THE GROUND Part! 

were formed as if all the substances of these rocks 
had been pulverized and then deposited by the ac- 
tion of water. They were found in layers, with the 
marks of the action of water on them and with the 
fossils of plants and animals so imbedded in them that 
it seemed impossible to resist the conclusion that they 
were placed in the positions in which they were found 
by the action of water, and hence the name of the 
water-laid rocks. 

The fire-fused rocks are below the water-laid rocks 
and form the foundation of the earth "s crust. The evi- 
dence seems conclusive that they were formerly a mol- 
ten mass, and hence the name of the fire-fused rocks. 
The substance which makes up the water-laid rocks 
must have been first pulverized from the surface of 
the fire-fused rocks. 

The water-laid rocks are in layers one above another 
and contain the fossilized remains of the vegetable and 
animal forms of life which were in existence during 
the time in which the various layers were being formed. 
These fossils show a constant improvement in the 
forms of life in each higher layer of the rocks, and at 
last suggest that these forms of life -^^w out of each 
other by a natural proce&s of impr .^. or develop- 

ment. 

The process of pulverizing the surface of the original 
fire-fused rocks by frost, wave and storm, and then 
the gathering together of these small ^-articles in the 
slow deposits, resulting from the natural movements 
of the waters and their final solidification into rocks, 
must have occupied vast ages of time. And, leading 
to the same conclusions, the forms of life whose fossils 
were found in these rocks would require a like dura- 
tion for the development of the last and more perfect 
forms of life, found in the highest and most recent of 



Chap. II FIRST PRINCIPLES 31 

these rocks, from the simplest forms of life found in 
the lowest and oldest of the rocks. 

22. The Time Required.— The geologists studying 
the earth could not explain the water-laid rocks with- 
out great periods of time for their formation. The 
biologist studying the forms of life could not explain 
their continuous development, showing in each higher 
layer of the rocks higher forms of life, unless great 
periods of time were granted for their development. 
So the time element in the development of the forms 
of life confirms the hoary age of the rocks, which have 
preserved the fossilized remains of the improving 
forms of life; and the time element in the formation of 
the rocks, confirms the belief in the measureless ages 
during which the simpler forms of life were growing 
into the form of man.^ 

23. Confirmation by the Astronomers.— Astronomy 
came with its story of the earth's origin and of its 
relation to the rest of the universe. It showed that 
the earth was a birth, rather than a creation, and it 
asked for space so boundless and time so limitless that 
the time calculations of the students of the rocks and 
of the forms of life, seemed to come far short rather 
than to excee'^ ^-^ long periods of actual duration. 
"Where the geologist' Mi biologist had spoken in thou- 
sands, the astronomer spoke in millions. And so all 
students of nature came to the conclusion of the very 
great age of the earth, and, by the same reasoning, 
they came to a eeiiviction of the very great age of the 
human race, for in the midst of these rock records of 
the past were found the records of man and of his 
products. These investigations have so extended the 
known age of our race as almost to make the use of 
numbers meaningless. It is commonly held that the 

9. Haeckel: In the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution 
for 1898, On Our Present Knowledge of the Origin of Man. 



32 CLEARING THE GROUND Part I 

age of the race cannot be less than one hundred thou- 
sand years, with the strong probability of its being 
not less than half a million years.^^ The theory of 
development explains all this. No other theory can. 

24. Conclusions.— Here, then, is the story of the 
growth of the race told over again by the growth of 
the embryo of each new child. Here is the record of 
the remnants of organs now useless, but which were 
once of service in the earlier forms of life. Here is the 
record of the rocks told without prejudice and with no 
interest in mis-stating the facts, and here the proof 
of the passing of the countless centuries necessary for 
the development to so take place. You may see the 
life-struggles, by which this advance has taken place, 
still going on between the individuals and between the 
groups, for, among plants, animals and men, there are 
both the struggle against all else, for the preservation 
of the individual, and the surrender of the individual 
for the preservation of its kind. This last suggestion 
will be more largely discussed in the succeeding chap- 
ter. (See also Chapter XHI). 

25. Summary.— 1. All forms of life are struggling 
for existence. 

2. All forms of life are always changing. 

3. The new forms which come as the result of con- 
stant changes, which make more effective the struggle 
for existence, are the ones which survive. 

4. It is this process which results in the progress 
of persons, races and institutions. 

5. That the life of man has been so developed is 

10. Lyell: Principles of Geology; Avebury: Pieliistoric Times, 
pp. 360-404; Geike: The Great Ice Age, pp. 766-816; J. Croll: Climate 
and Time, Chapter XXI. 

"We have every reason to believe, then, that the great Glacial 
period of the Pleistocene Age began 240,000 years ago, and came to 
an end 80,000 years ago. But, at the beginning of this period men 
were living in the valley of the Thames River." — Fiske: Excursions of 
an Evolutionist, Chapter on "The Arrival of Man in Europe." " "x^ 



Chap, it FIRST PRINCIPLES 33 

believed, (a) because of the repetition of such a race 
development in the growth of the human embryo, (b) 
because of the rudimentary survivals of organs found 
in the human body, not now of any service, but which 
are of service to lower forms of life, and (c) because of 
the constant improvement in the forms of life as re- 
corded in the rocks, showing the simplest forms of life 
only in the oldest rocks and continually showing higher 
forms as the advance is made upward through the more 
recent strata of the rocks and finally to the form of 
man. 

6. The theory of development, that is, of evolu- 
tion, explains all this, and the same theory of develop- 
ment, that is, of evolution, is the basis of all scientific 
study of the development of social institutions. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. How was the present order of existence formerly accounted 
for? 

2. What is the scientific method? 

3. What is meant by the struggle for existence and survival of 
the fittest? 

4. Does this account for the origin of natural forces themselves? 

5. Give the three arguments in defense of the claim of the theory 
that man has been developed from lower forms of life. 

6. What of the probabk age of the human race ? 



CHAPTER in 

PRIMITIVE LIFE 

26. Savagery, Barbarism and Civilization.— Until 

within recent years the story of the primitive life of 
onr race was not thought to be of much importance. 
It was not understood to have covered any great 
periods of time or to have had any important part 
in the making up of« the usages and the institutions of 
civilized life. It was generally thought that the dif- 
ference between savage people and civilized people 
was largely a matter of races. It was not generally 
thought that the races now civilized were at any time 
themselves savages. It was historically known that all 
had been in barbarism.^ It is now known that all were 
in savagery before they were in barbarism, just as 
all were in barbarism before they were in civilization. 
The distance which lies between savagery and civiliza- 
tion is not a matter of the different natural endow- 
ments of the different races. It is a matter of the 
different degrees of development of the different races.^ 

27. The Order of Development.— It is now a matter 

1. Ancient Society: Lewis H. Morgan, pp. 3-18; Tylor: Primitive 
Culture, Vol. I., Chap. 2. 

2. Morgan: Ancient Society, pp. 3-18; Tylor: Primitive Culture. 
Vol. L, Chap. 2. 

34 



Chap. Ill PRIMITIVE LIFE 35 

of agreement among scholars that just as a chemist 
may put certain substances into a crucible and predict 
the result of applying heat and the steps by which the 
result is reached; and that, just as another familiar 
with the experiment could come upon the scene in 
the midst of the proceeding and tell all the steps which 
had gone before and all which were to follow, so if a 
student of primitive society is given certain habits or 
customs of a people, he can determine the stage of its 
growth, and so be able to tell, with great certainty, 
not only the steps which it has taken, but many of its 
current habits and customs, and can tell, with equal 
certainty, the next step in its progress. You can tell 
such a student the implements found in the graves of 
an ancient people, and he can tell you much of their 
forms of government, the nature of their sex relations 
and the kind of houses which they built.^ 

28. If a race is found which has not developed the 
use of the bow and arrow, it may be quite safely in- 
ferred that promiscuous sex relations, no permanent 
dwellings and only the most primitive forms of govern- 
ment will be found characteristic of that race. If a sav- 
age or barbarian race be found without slaves, it may 
be predicted, with equal certainty, that the private 
ownership of land, the use of money or a market, 
will not be found among the practices of that race. 

29. Object Lessons in History.— In this way the 
rude tribes which still linger in their infancy reveal 
to us what the life of our own race was. when in like 
infancy. Hence it follows that modern scholarship 
has not only multiplied the years allotted to the early 
life of the race, but it has made this study of primitive 
man of the utmost importance, because here can be 
studied in the simplicity of their beginnings, the 
usages and the institutions of our civilized life. Civili- 

3. Morgan: Ancient Society, Preface and First Three Chapters. 



36 CLEARING THE GROUND Part I 

zation was not invented. It was born and has grown 
out of the humblest and most natural beginnings.^ 

30. Primitive Man Not Helpless.— Again, it has 
been the custom to assume that man commenced his ca- 
reer full-grown, with wants and faculties much as he 
now has them, and to have proceeded to establish the 
home, the industry, the commerce, and the govern- 
ment of the world by a kind of inspired contrivance. 
When scholarship learned to deny all this and to in- 
sist on the lowly origin and slow development, not 
only of man himself, but also of all the usages and in- 
stitutions of society which he posseses, it spoke so 
frequently of primitive man as *' without experience 
and utterly helpless'^ as to become misleading with 
regard to the facts of our early life.^ 

For it is certain that the first man that ever lived 
did not suddenly awaken from his animal antecedents 
and look around for food and shelter in keeping with 
the tastes and necessities of man as we know him. 

Modern science attempts to prove that the first man 
came into the world, like the last one, by being born 
into it. He might have been a slight improvement on 
his mother, but he took the food and shelter which she 
provided and asked no questions. If she was the last 
in the series to be called brute and her child the first 
in the series to be called man, it is only reasonable to 
assume that both the mother and her child inherited 
and possessed all of the higher cunning, instincts and 
habits which can now be found among the lower ani- 
mals. The bird and her woven nest, the bee and its 
matted storehouse, the beaver and its dam, the squirrel 

4. "The social system is not the creation of any man or set of 
men, but has grown of itself out of the tendency among men to secure, 
the things they wish for the least exertion." — Baker: Monopolies and 
the People, p. 141. See also Morgan: Ancient Society, Prefac* and 
First Three Chapters. 

5. Mason: Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, Introduction. 
Clodd : Childhood of the World. 



Chap. Ill PRIMITIVE LIFE 37 

and its store of food— these would lead us to think 
that the first man, the superior of all these, with his 
limited wants, his ample inheritance of cunning, in- 
stinct and habit from his animal ancestry and the un- 
taken earth at his disposal, would find the question of 
subsistence an easier one than the average resident of 
a back alley in a modern factory town. He was never 
*^ without experience and utterly helpless." 

31. The Roots of Civilization.— It is now admitted 
that the usages and institutions of modern society 
**find not only their antecedent roots in barbarism, but 
their germs in savagery."^ It seems that it might be 
further said that these germs were themselves given vi- 
tality and form during the preceding countless centu- 
ries when man 's animal ancestry had not yet advanced 
to the forms of life which finally and distinctively mark 
the life of man. If this is so, not only can we gather the 
meaning of our institutions from the early life of man, 
but from the instincts and habits of all natural life 
we may obtain hints which may prove helpful in the 
interpretation of the usages and institutions of modern 
society.''' 

If we would understand modern usages and institu- 

6. Morgan: Ancient Society, p. 4. 

7. "The struggle for existence among men is probably as severe 
as that among the lower forms of organic life. Among men, as among 
animals or plants, we find a number of young brought into being which 
is far in excess of the number that reaches maturity. * * * But 
while the intensity of the struggle is the same, the conditions under 
which it is waged are different in certain important respects. In the first 
place, the human struggle is between groups more than between individ- 
uals. In the second place, it is a struggle for domination more than for 
annihilation, a struggle which has in it the possibility of losing part of 
its character as a strife, and giving place to an arrangement for mutual 
service between those whose interests at first seemed to conflict. Neither 
of these things is wholly confined to the human race. ***** 
The race of ants which has proved stronger in the fight [mark the word 
"fight"] no longer regards the members of the weaker race as rivals 
to be killed, but as helpers to be utilized in labor for which the fighting 
race is unfitted. Under such circumstances we find institutions and 
usages which are in many respects strikingly like those of semi-civilized 
man." — Hadley: Economics, pp. 19 * * 20. 



m CLEARING THE GROUND Pabt I 

tions, we must seek the reasons for their existence in 
the humble beginnings of the primitive life of man. The 
family, the church, the state, the workshop, the market, 
agriculture, mining, transportation, literature and art 
—all these have come to be what they are, not by the 
invention, contrivance or decree of any man or million 
of men, but as the result of struggle and the slow 
growth of the life of the race through a thousand 
centuries.^ 

32. The Struggle for Existence Fundamental. —And 

this long struggle has always been at bottom a struggle 
for existence; that is, for the means of life, a struggle 
for food, fuel, clothing, shelter. This struggle neces- 
sarily always comes first in all personal and social 
life. Only when this struggle has been successfully 
made can there be any struggle for the higher com- 
forts and refinements of modern civilization. The 
claim is not that man has no other interests than these. 
It is, that his other interests cannot exist at all unless 
these things are first provided.^ The fact is, that the 
whole race has been so completely engaged in secur- 
ing these things, or in seeking to possess these things, 

8. "The key to the enigma of the universe is found in the doctrine 
of evolution. * * * To the physical, animal, vegetable, and even 
mineral worlds, the doctrine of evolution equally applies, and its sig- 
nificance is not confined to a necessary connection between the terms 
'evolution,' 'man,' and 'monkey,' so often now-a-days found unalterably 
associated in the minds of the ignorant. The doctrine is a fundamental 
conception of all science — mental, moral, and physical. * ^^ * The 
study of evolution in all its branches is the study of history; but history 
of different kinds. The study of the evolution of society is history 
in its highest and truest sense." — Melville: The Evolution of Modern 
Society in Its Historical Aspect; Smithsonian Report, 1891, pp. 507 
* * * 21. 

" * * * Socialism is, after all, in its fundamental conception, 
only the logical application of the scientific theory of natural evolution 
to economic phenomena." — Ferri: Socialism and Modern Science, p. 94. 

9. "The secret of progress, the perpetual satisfying of wants fol- 
lowed by the springing up of new wants, is the secret of individual 
unrest and disappointment." — Toynbee: Notes and Jottings. 

"The prime factors in social progress are the Community and its 
Environment. The environment of a community comprises all the cir- 
cumstances, adjacent or remote, to which the community may be in 



Chap. III. PKIMITIVE LIFE 39 

because of the power over others which then* pos- 
session has given, that there has been neither the 
time nor the strength to give sufficient attention to 
other interests — to so witlistand the force of the 
struggle for existence — as to make it possible to 
enable other things to make any very important 
mark on the life of the race/^ 

S3. The Human Brain, With Both Base and 
Dome.— It is not contended that there is no crown 
to the brain of man, with its aspirations, its ideals, 
its lofty purposes. It is claimed that the struggle 
for the existence of the individual and the struggle 
for the existence of the group of related individ- 
uals has been so intense that the seat of the vital 
functions, of hunger and of lust — that is, the base 
of the brain and not its dome — has had the mastery. 

34. And, if one wishes to learn what the masters 
have done, it must be looked for in the domain of 

any way obliged to conform its actions. It comprises not only the 
climate of the country, its soil, its flora and fauna, its perpendicular 
elevation, its relation to the mountain-chains, the length of its coast 
line, the character of its scenery, and its geographical position with ref- 
erence to other countries, but it includes also the ideas, feelings, cus- 
toms and observances of past times, so far as they are preserved by 
literature, traditions, or monuments; as well as foreign contemporary 
manners and opinions, so far as they are known and regarded by 
the community in question. ***** Ti^g environment in our 
problem must, therefore, not only include psychical as well as physical 
factors, but the former are immeasurably the more important factors, 
and as civilization advances their relative importance steadily in- 
creases. * * * Y^Q have first to observe that it is a corollary 
from the law of us€ and disuse, and the kindred biologic laws which sum 
up the process of direct and indirect equilibration, that the fundamental 
characteristic of social progress is the continuous weakening of selfish- 
ness and the continuous strengthening of sympathy. Or — to use a 
more convenient and somewhat more accurate expression suggested by 
Comte — it is a gradual supplanting of egotism by altruism, — Fiske: 
Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, Vol. II., pp. 197, 201. 

10. *'It is abundantly true that human qualities and material con- 
ditions react on one another; and any student or social reformer is 
self-condemned who leaves either one or the other out of account." — 
Cunningham: Modern Civilization — Its Economic Aspects, p. 4. 

''A closer analysis shows that the fundamental distinction be- 
tween the animal and the human method is that the environment 
transforms the animal, while man transforms environment." — Ward: 
Psychic Factors of Civilization, p. 257. 



40 CLEARING THE GROUND Part I 

tlie activities of these basic faculties. But the very- 
existence of the higher faculties of man demonstrates 
the long continuance of the struggle for a hearing for 
the higher possibilities of human life. Either the 
whole theory of development is wrong, or else it has 
been the effort of the brain to function in the realm of 
aspiration, of veneration, of mutual beneficence, which 
has forced the growth and development of these por- 
tions of the upper human brain, now believed to be 
especially essential in order that these particular 
traits may be found in the character of their possessor. 
If the present has inherited the product of such activi- 
ties, then its ancestry must have engaged in such ac- 
tivities.^^ 

35. Higher Activities Not Denied.— In looking for 
the principal cause of all political and social institu- 
tions at any time in the conditions under which the 
struggle for existence has been carried on at that time, 
it is not contended that there are no other forces be- 
sides economic needs. So far in the world's life, the 
other forces have not been able to achieve the mastery. 
If the struggle for existence, carried on only on the line 
of securing food, fuel, clothing and shelter, is the only 
possible motive for human activity, then there would 
be a most discouraging outlook for the race, for those 
who hope to see this struggle for existence made of 
secondary consideration. When further organization, 
better equipment and the collective ownership and con- 
trol of industry shall make food, fuel, clothing and 
shelter the easy possession of all men, if these are all 
there is of life, what then shall spur men on to further 
achievements ? There is more in life than food and rai- 
ment. The possession of these things will not rob life 
of its meaning. There are higher things in life. Their 
roots run far back in the life of the world and ground 

IL The History of the world is none other than the progr««s of 
the consciousness of Freedom," — Hegel: Philosophy of History (Bolin 
Edition), pp. 10-20, 



Chap. Ill PRIMITIVE LIFE 41 

themselves in the most fundamental activities of the 
animal kingdom. But they are not yet the masters of 
man's activities.^^ 

36. The Crucifixion of the Worthiest and the Sur- 
vival of the Best Adapted.— Forever in the world's 
yesterdays, the ruling laws, the ruling institutions, the 
ruling ideals, the ruling morals, the ruling religions, 
have heen the laws, institutions, ideals, morals and re- 
ligions of the ruling forces; and the ruling forces, so 
far in the world's life, have been fighting for the con- 
trol of the basic necessities,— for the most primitive 
needs of man. The highest ideals frequently rule in 
domestic relations. The devotion and sacrifice of 
parental regard give us glimpses of what man might 
be in his social relations. But so far in the life of the 
race, whenever individuals, in their social relations, 
have risen above these fundamental demands of sub- 
sistence and the activities resulting from them, they 
have been starved, or hanged, or crucified. And then 
the very forces which have crucified these heroes, for 
living in advance of their time, have adopted the cant 
phrases of the new life, have banished its spirit and 
have harnessed its enthusiasm to the same old ^ ^ bread 
and butter" problem as before. The ^' bread and but- 
ter" problem has ruled in all the past. It will rule in 
the future until it is solved, and poverty and the fear 
of poverty shall no longer be able to terrorize the 
world.^^ 

12. "One of the philosophical things that have been said in dis- 
criminating man from the lower animals, is that he is the one creature 
who is never satisfied. It is well for him that he is so, that there is 
always something more for which he craves. To my mind this fact 
strongly hints that man is infinitely more than a mere animate ma- 
chine."^Fiske : A Century of Science, pp. 120-21. 

"There are men who could neither be distressed nor won into 
a sacrifice of their duty; but this stern virtue is the groMh of few 
soils; and in the main it will be found that a power over a man's 
support is a power over his will." — Alexander Hamilton: The Fed- 
eralist, No. LXXIII. 

13. "Taking man, however, for what he has thus far been and 



42 CLEARING THE GROUND Part 1 

Whoever vfould understand the past must look at all 
the problems of the past from the ''bread and butter'' 
standpoint. Whoever would have other forces rule 
the future must first solve for the future the ''bread 
and butter" problem. 

37. Darwin, Spencer, Marx.— These are the great 
natural truths which suggest and defend the theory of 
evolution, which Darwin applied to the study of the 
origin of the different kinds of animals, and which 
Herbert Spencer insisted must apply to all departments 
of thought, and Karl Marx definitely applied to the 
study of the labor problem, and so developed the scien- 
tific defense of the Socialist proposals. 

38. This is what is usually meant by such phrases 
as, "the materialistic conception of history ;"^^ "the 
economic interpretation of history;" "the economic 
foundations of society," and "economic determinism." 
It will be seen that this insistence upon economic causes 
as of fundamental importance in economic and social 
discussions in no way denies the foundations of re- 
ligion nor ignores any of the highest faculties of the 
human mind. 

still is, it is difficult to deny that the underlying influence in its 
broadest aspects has very generally been of this economic character. 
The economic interpretation of history in its proper formulation, does 
not exhaust the possibilities of life and progress; it does not ex- 
plain all the niceties of human development; but it emphasizes the 
forces which have hitherto been so largely instrumental in the rise 
and fall, in the prosperity and decadence, in the glory and failure, 
in the weal and woe of nations and peoples. It is a relative, rather 
than an absolute, explanation. It is suljstantially true of the past; 
it will tend to become less and less true of the future." — Seligman: 
The Economic Interpretation of History, pp. 157-58. 

14. "In the social production of their every-day existence men 
enter into definite relations that are at once necessary and independ- 
ent of their own volition — relations of production that correspond 
to a definite stage of their material powers of production. The to- 
tality of these relations of production constitutes the economic struc- 
ture of society — the real basis on which is erected the legal and po- 
litical edifice and to which there correspond definite forms of social 
consciousness. The method of production in material existence condi- 
tions social, political and mental evolution in general." — Marx: A 
Criticism on Political Economy. 

"It is, however, important to remember that the originators of 



Chap. Ill PRIMITIVE LIFE 43 

39. Summary.— 1. All the races of men were once 
in savagery and barbarism. 

2. The beginnings of all modern institutions may be 
found in savagery and barbarism. 

3. A knowledge of the nature of the beginnings of 
modem institutions in savagery and barbarism and of 
their development from these humble origins is neces- 
sary to the understanding of modern institutions. 

4. The principal controlling factors in the process 
of man's development, and of the institutions which he 
has established, are to be found in his struggle for ex- 
istence and the means he has used and the organiza- 
tions he has created to this end. 

5. This does not mean that there are no other fac- 
tors in human life, but that the problems involved in 
providing for existence must always be solved before 
other matters can be given just consideration. 

the theory have themselves called attention to the danger of exag- 
geration. Toward the close of his career Engels, influenced no doubt 
by the weight of adverse criticism, pointed out that too much had some- 
times been claimed for the doctrine. 'Marx and I,' he writes to a stu- 
dent in 1890, 'are partly responsible for the fact that the younger 
men have sometimes laid more stress on the economic side than it 
deserves. In meeting the attacks of our opponents it was necessary 
for us to emphasize the dominant principle, denied by them; and we did 
not always have the time, place or opportunity to let the other 
factors, which were concerned in the mutual action and reaction, 
get their deserts.' In another letter Eiigels explains his meaning more 
clearly: — 'According to the materialistic view of history the factor 
which is in the last instance decisive in history is the production 
and reproduction of actual life. More than this neither Marx nor I 
have ever asserted. But when any one distorts this so as 
to read that the economic factor is the sole element, he converts the 
statement into a meaningless, abstract, absurd phrase. The economic 
condition is the basis, but the various elements in the superstruc- 
ture — the political forms of the class contests, and their results, the 
constitution — the legal forms, and also all the reflexes of these actual 
contests in the brains of the participants, the political, legal, phil- 
osophical theories, the religious views * * * all these exert an 
influence on the development of the historical struggles, and in many 
instances determine tkeir form'. " — Seligman : The Economic Interpre- 
tation of History, pp. 141-3. 

" * * * I am convinced that to omit or neglect these eco- 
nomical faofcs is to make the study of history barren and unreal. With 
every effort that can be given to it, the narrative of the historian 
can never be much more than an imperfect or suggestive sketch. We 



44 CLEARING THE GROUND Part I 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. From what earlier condition of life have all civilized peoples 
arisen ? 

2. In what way can one even now directly observe social, ac- 
tivities like the earlier social activities of his own race? 

3. By what process has civilization come into existence? 

4. Were the earliest forms of human life ever "without experi- 
ence and utterly helpless"? 

5. Why is the study of primitive life of great value to the stu- 
dent of social problems? 

6. Why are economic questions of such great importance in the 
study of all human usages and institutions? 

7. What has usually been the fate of the great idealists? Why? 

8. Does this mean that ideals are without value or that the 
struggle for the means of life is not only the most fundamental busi- 
ness of life, but the highest and worthiest possible undertaking? 

9. What is meant by the phrases: — "materialistic conception of 
history," "the economic interpretation of history," "the economic 
foundations of society," "economic determination"? 



may get the chronology correct, the sequence of events exact, the de- 
tails of the campaigns precise, the changes of frontier reasonably 
accurate, but may still be far off from the controlling motives of 
public action, may be entirely in the dark as to the real cause ot 
events." — Rogers: Economic Interpretation of History^ jp. 6***12. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ORDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 

40. In the study of the life of man, it is found that 
the advance of the race falls into three grand divisions : 
Savagery, Barbarism and Civilization. Savagery and 
Barbarism are each subdivided into three periods, 
while Civilization is considered as a single period. We 
thus have seven periods in all.^ In presenting this mat- 
ter here, the classifications of Mr. Lewis H. Morgan are 
followed.^ The information so arranged has been 
gathered from a large number of sources. The ef- 
fort has been made to include nothing except those 
items regarding the truth of which the recognized 
students of these matters are in substantial agree- 
ment. 



1. "The value of history lies not in the multitude of facts col- 
lected, but in their relation to each other." — ^Adamsi Law of Civiliza- 
tion and Decay, Preface, V. 

2. Morgan: Ancient Society, pp. 9-14. 

"Before man could have attained to the civilized state it was 
necessary that he should gain all the elements of civilization. This 
implies an amazing change of condition, first from a primtive sav- 
age to a barbarian of the lowest type, and then from the latter to a 
Greek of the Homeric period, or a Hebrew of the time of Abraham. 
The progressive development which history records in the period of 
civilization was not less true of man in each of the previous periods. 

"By re-ascending along the several lines of human progress toward 
the primitive ages of man's existence, and removing one by one his 

45 



46 CLEARING THE GROUND Part 1 

41. First Period— Man With Only His Inheritance 
From His Animal Ancestry.— The first of these periods, 
which was in Savagery, covers the time after man's 
advance above the other animals to the human form 
and prior to the discovery and use of fire and the 
adding of fish to man's earlier diet of roots, fruits and 
nuts. There were then promiscuous relation of the 
sexes, no government, no arts, no inventions, no organ- 
izations of industry and no recognition of property.^ 

42. Second Period— Fire.— The second period, still 
in Savagery, began with the discovery of the use of 
fire and the use of fish as food. During this period 
the first division of labor was made by leaving the 
women about the fires while the men joined together 
in the fishing.^ The earliest forms of social organiza- 

principal institutions, inventions, and discoveries, in the order in 
which they have appeared, the advance made in each period will be 
realized. — "Morgan: Ancient Society, pp. 29-30. 

"Morgan deserves great credit for rediscovering and re-estab- 
lishing in its main outlines this foundation of our written history, 
and of finding in the sexual organizations of the North American In- 
dians the key that opens all the unfathomable riddles of most an- 
cient Greek, Roman and German history. His book is not the work 
of a short day. For more than forty years he grappled with the sub- 
ject, until he mastered it fully. Therefore his work is one of the few 
epochal publications of our time. * """ * Morgan was the first 
to make an attempt at introducing a logical order into the history 
of primeval society. Until considerably more material is obtained, no 
further changes will be necessary and his arrangement will surely 
remain in force." — Engels: Origin of the Family, pp. 10-11, 27. 

3. Westermark and others have contended that promiscuous sex 
relations did not prevail in savagery, but the monogamic relations 
for which Westermark contends were of such a nature as not to ma- 
terially affect the argument that the family, like other institutions 
of modern society, has been developed as the result of economic 
causes, operating through long periods of time. The sex relations 
have constantly advanced in the direction of more and more exclu- 
siveness from the beginning. First those not helping to keep the 
tribal fire on the one hand, and those not belonging to the corre- 
sponding fishing groups, on the other, were excluded. Then blood 
relations were . excluded. Then those not personally attracted were 
excluded. Then those not dependent for support were excluded, and 
finally there remains but one more possible exclusion, and that 
is not possible under capitalism. It is the self-possession of all women 
and the consequent exclusion from sex relations of all those brought 
together in consideration of property interestf=. 

4. Mason: Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, Introduction. 



Chap. IV THE ORDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 47 

tion appear to have grown out of this division of labor: 
the women combining to guard the fire, and the men 
combining for fishing expeditions,— both groups grow- 
ing into fixed relations along sex lines. The family 
also had its earliest form from the same causes, all of 
the men of the whole group became the husbands of 
all of the women of the corresponding group. In these 
groups, both men and women were of blood relation.^ 
But promiscuous sex relations outside the groups came 
to an end. The fires and the fishing grounds were held 
and used collectively. 

43. Third Period— Bow and Arrow.— The third 
period, the last in Savagery, began with the use of the 
bow and arrow. During this period the family idea 
advanced to a stage under which all the women of a 
group were of blood relation, and the men not so re- 
lated to each other; or all the men were of blood rela- 
tion, and the women not so related to each other. The 
group marriage remained and promiscuous sex rela- 
tions within the groups, but blood relations were not 
admitted into group relations across sex lines. 
. 44. The gens appeared as an advance in govern- 
ment by which all of those belonging to the groups and 
maintaining relation of kinship after the above man- 
ner, were bound together in the common control of 
their common interests. To the diet of fruit, nuts, roots 
and fish, was added game, which the hunters, now 
equipped with the bow and arrow, were able to caijture. 
There were further uses for fire and improvements in 
the camps. Industry was still carried on by the joint 
effort of all, and whatever productive property existed 
was held and used in common.^ 

45 Fourth Period— Pottery.— The fourth period, 
the first in Barbarism, began with the making and use 

5. Mason: Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, p. 221. 

6. Morgan: Ancient Society, pp. 525-527. 



48 CLEARING THE GROUND Part 1 

of pottery. This is believed to have been woman's in- 
vention, and the period is marked by a corresponding 
improvement in her work J The forms of government 
advanced by the gentes combining into larger groups. 
Each gens continued to maintain its separate existence 
as before, but the larger groups, called phratries, ex- 
tended the idea of social organization. The family ad- 
vanced to the point where each man or woman claimed, 
or might claim, some man or woman of the correspond- 
ing gens as especially his or hers, but this did not ex- 
tend to the exclusive possession of each other, and 
each sex still lived by itself. There was still co-opera- 
tive labor and common ownership of productive prop- 
erty. 

46. Fifth Period— Taming the Animals.— The fifth 
period, the second in Barbarism, began with the taming 
and use of animals, the building of houses of adobe 
brick and stone, the cultivation of corn and the cereals 
and the use of irrigation in the cultivation of the 
ground. There was still co-operative labor and the col- 
lective ownership of all property collectively used, now 
including fields, herds and houses. The family did 
not change form. The phratries made combinations 
and thus formed tribes after the same manner as the 
gentes had combined to make the phratries. There 
was a great change in the diet and in the clothing of 
the people. A much larger portion of the earth was 
made habitable, and, consequently, as the herds grew 
in numbers, the population migrated looking for wider 
fields of pasturage. The permanent possession of defi- 
nite territory by any given tribe became a matter of 
importance.^ 

47. Sixth Period— Iron.— The sixth period, the last 

7. Mason: Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, Chap. V. 

8. Ihering: Evolution of the Aryans, pp. 14-44, and 48-50 j Mor- 
gan: Ancient Society, p. 540» 



Chap. IV THE ORDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 49 

in Barbarism, began with the smelting of iron; and 
iron tools, together with iron weapons for hunting and 
for war, came into use. The tribes began to federate 
into nationSo The stronger men began to contend for 
the exclusive possession of favorite women, and so 
polygamy came into being, as the practice of military 
leaders. It never became the established order of the 
common life. At the same time the relations between 
the men and the women of their mutual and special 
choice advanced toward the mutual and exclusive 
possession of each other. There were the beginnings 
of the modern family.^ 

48. Primitive Products and Inventions.—During 
this period there is found to have been in use rice, bar- 
ley, wheat, corn, rye, oats, peas, beans and onions, 
gold, silver, brass, iron, tin and bronze, the sickle, the 
pruning knife, the distaff, the spindle, the shuttle and 
the loom, the harp and the shepherd's pipe, the dyke, 
bridge and the irrigation ditch, garments of cloth and 
shoes of leather, houses of stone and brick, the dog, 
sheep, goat, hog, cow and horse, the wagon of four 
wheels, the saddle, pottery, the basket, the mill for 
grinding, and sailing vessels.^^ 

49. The labor of production was still the work of 

9. "In primitive times sexual matters concerned the tribe, not 
the person. The end sought was the preservation of the group, and 
against it no individual had any rights, nor were his inclinations 
and feelings ever made the basis of duties or virtues. Where parent- 
age is unimportant promiscuity is the rule. Especially in fighting 
clans it was necessary to offer every inducement for child-bearing. 
Festivals, feasts, and social gatherings were designed to provoke the 
passions. 

"Under such conditions the first thought of a woman was, not 
to guard her chastity, but to escape barrenness. She knew that her 
position and probably her life depended upon her fertility. Chastity 
became a dominant virtue only after economic welfare had pro- 
gressed so far that clans began to disintegrate. Before that time 
barrenness was the dread of every woman, and she would resort to 
every means to avoid it." — Professor Patten (University of Penn- 
sylvania) : Development of English Thought, p. 137. 

10. All these are mentioned by Homer, who was the great poet 
pf the last period of Barbarism. 



50 CLEARING THE GROUND Part 1 

women, but woman's work was beginning to be rein- 
forced by slaves. These were men captured from other 
tribes. In the earliest wars, the fight was unto death 
for one group or the other. The victorious men would 
save the women alive and take them unto themselves, 
adding them to the body of their own wives, where 
they would make a part of the working force of the 
tribe. Slavery made its beginning by saving alive the 
men who would finally surrender, and taking them 
home to join the women in the tribal industry.^^ This 
was the result of one of the most important discoveries 
of all time— that a man is worth more alive than dead. 
50 Barbarian Expansion.— The tribes were press- 
ing upon each other for territory. The herds were out- 
growing the pastures and the populations were out- 
growing the smaller herds. Enlargement was neces- 
sary. To stay at home meant ruin through the limited 
means of life. To go abroad meant war. Whatever 
may be said of the early union of men within the tribes, 
there is no evidence whatever of any appreciation of 
any rights of any sort, for those outside the tribe. The 
gods of the tribes usually gave them all the land they 
wanted, without regard to whether it was already oc- 
cupied or not, the only condition being that ^^they 
go up and take it.''^^ The result was universal war. 
War was becoming the regular occupation of men. But 
war, like hunting and fishing, was a joint matter, and 
the lands, usually the herds, and always the products of 
hunting, fishing and the spoils of war, belonged to all 
in common.^^ 

11. Morgan: Ancient Society, p. 540. 

12. Gummere: Germanic Origins, Chapter IX.; Maine: Ancient 
Law, p. 125; Ihering: Evolution of the Aryans, pp. 19-20. 

13. While I have followed Morgan's classifications, I have marked 
the periods as beginning with certain events, as serving my purpose 
better than as ending with certain other events. In this instance he 
mentions these items as belonging to near the end of Barbarism, 
while I mention them as marking the beginning of Civilization. The 



Chap. IV THE ORDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 51 

51. Seventh Period— The Alphabet, War, Slavery 
and the Class Struggle.— The seventh period is that 
covered by Civilization. This period is said to have 
begun with the invention of the alphabet. The begin- 
ning of this period was also marked by the beginning 
of private property in herds and lands as well as slaves. 
The motive of war and the function of the military de- 
partment speedily changed from an effort for relief 
from overcrowding to one of seeking power by con- 
quering and appropriating to private use the herds 
and lands of others and reducing the populations of 
the conquered lands to slavery. In fact, it was the be- 
ginning of slavery as a dominant industrial institution, 
as the slave of an earlier day had been a kind of mem- 
ber of the tribe or family, but now the slaves were 
organized into camps by themselves— and the co-op- 
erative organization of industry gave way to slavery. 
Government changed from a free association based on 
kinship to an authority based wholly on force, and 
was made to cover all of the people on any given terri- 
tory without regard to kinship.^^ Society was divided 
into two classes, those who had forcibly taken the 
earth, and their slaves. The slaves were first the cap- 
tives of war, and afterwards the slaves of their cap- 
tors, and were compelled to produce with no direct 
interest in the products of their own labor. Labor 
became the badge of servitude and dependence. The 
laborer was disgraced, discredited, disinherited and 
disfranchised— and the age-long, world-wide, economic 
class struggle made its beginning. 

52. Whence Slavery?— We are here dealing with 
one of the most important facts of all history: Whence 
came slavery ! T\n.ience came private property in land? 

end of Barbarism is the same time as the beginning of Civilization, 
but I am able to make the relations of some events as the causes of 
other events more evident by speaking of them as I have done. 

14. Gummere: Germanic Origins, Chapter IX.; Morgan: Ancient 
Society, Part II., Chapter XIII. 



52 CLEARING THE GROUND Part 1 

It is evident that the land was the primary object of 
attack, but the occupants, taken captive, were made 
slaves and set to work cultivating the land or caring 
for the herds. The land of conquered tribes was made 
the tribal property of the conquering tribe, at the same 
time that human beings were made the tribal property 
of the conquering tribe. 

53. The Hunter and the Soldier.— The earlier wars 
had been wars solely of defense, and the military lead- 
er had not been a very important character within his 
own tribe, where the purest primitive democracy pre- 
vailed in all matters within the tribe. It was only 
when war had become an important method of enrich- 
ing the tribe that the successful warrior came to sur- 
pass in importance both the hunter and the herdsman, 
and the mighty hunter became the builder of military 
power.^^ It was war which led to the discovery that 
it was easier to steal cattle than to raise them, easier 
to get wealth by appropriating the products of others 
than by producing the wealth at home. Appropriation 
paid better and became more honorable than produc- 
tion. Appropriation became the work of the soldier, 
production the work of the slave. Even then private 
property in land and slaves had not appeared. The 
whole class of the conquerors appropriated and held 
in common both the lands and the whole class of those 
whom they had made landless by war. 

54„ Robbing the Robbers.— But the stronger men, 
who had first privately appropriated the favorite wom- 
en among those who were conquered, and so estab- 
lished polygamy, began to use, for private advantage, 
the tribal power to capture slaves and lands and then to 

15. "And Gush begat Mmrod: he began to be a mighty one in 
the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it 
is said, like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord. And the be- 
ginning of his Kingdom was Babel and Erech, and x^cead, and Cal- 
neh. in tbs la*^ ei Shiaaz-."— Genesis: Aft:8. 9, 10, 11. 



Chap. IV THE ORDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 53 

privately appropriate the lands and slaves which had 
before been appropriated by their tribes. The vic- 
torious tribes appropriated by war both the lands and 
the people of the conquered tribes, and in so doing de- 
veloped the strong military man who in turn used the 
military power, created and formerly used in order to 
enrich his tribe, now to enrich himself instead. War 
between the tribes extended tribal power and multi- 
plied the number of the tribal slaves, but these chief 
warriors robbed the robbers ; that is, they appropriated 
to themselves the lands and slaves which their own 
tribes were seeking to appropriate from other tribes, 
and thus made the beginning in the private ownership 
of both land and slaves. And in this manner, war be- 
tween the tribes seeking for a wider means of support, 
first made the whole class of captives the slaves of 
the whole class of their captors. And then the de- 
velopment of the strong military man within the tribes 
made possible the private possession of both the con- 
quered lands and the conquered peoples. And here at 
last private ownership of both land and slaves is the 
further fruit of war. 

55. Subjection of Woman.— The parentage of chil- 
dren among the master classes became of great impor- 
tance, as fixing the descent of property, and thus on 
a property basis the family was finally composed of 
one man and one woman and their children begotten 
together.^^ And here, also, the leisure class made its 
appearance. The women, who had been the first in- 
ventors, who had both created all primitive industry 
and had long continued to manage the industries they 



16. "With the establishment of the inheritance of property in 
the children of its owner, came the first possibility of the monogamian 
family. Gradually though slowly, this form of marriage, with an 
exclusive cohabitation, became the rule rather than the exception; 
but it was not until civilization had commenced that it became per- 
manently established." — Morgan: Ancient Society, p. 505. 



34 CLEARING THE GROUND Part I 

had created— now became workers with the slaves, and 
slaves with the workers, with no voice in the direc- 
tion of their own industry, but subject to the slave- 
driver's lash along with all other workers; either that, 
or the wives or the concubines of the soldiers, not to 
be discredited by toil, but to be guarded and impris- 
oned, in order that the paternity of the child should 
not be in doubt. They were both petted and ruled, 
both the subjects and the playthings of their masters. 

56. Achievements of Primitive Society.— It has 
been claimed that the last half century has seen more 
advance than all the previous life of man. But this is 
not the case. It would be as true to say that during 
the ten days of harvest, the fields yield more than 
during all the year besides. The fruits which are 
gathered then are the products of all the year, and of 
all the years which have gone before. Live stock 
breeding, the cereals, houses, clothes, machinery, roads 
and other means of transportation and communica- 
tion—in the development of such things as these, all 
of which had their beginnings in Barbarism, the last 
fifty years has seen many very great improvements. 
But the discovery of fire, the development of speech 
from the babble of beasts to the language of ^'articu- 
lately-speaking men,'' the development of the family 
and the creation of society on a basis of fraternity and 
equality, all of these and most of the former tasks were 
carried to a high degree of excellence before the com- 
ing of Civilization and all under co-operative labor and 
the common ownership of productive property. As 
related to the existence, the comfort and the liberty of 
the race, the discovery of fire, the creation of lan- 
guage, the building of the family, the organizing of 
free society,— not one of these has been equaled or 



Chap. IV THE ORDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 55 

even approached by any of the great inventions of the 
last century.^"^ 

57. Mechanical Ancestry. —The modem steam-plow 
has grown up from the crooked stick and ox team, 
which in turn were a vast improvement over the first 
sharpened stick with which the soil was turned and 
which was the common ancestor of all the spades, hoes, 
rakes, plows and harrows in existence. The modern 
palace is the distant offspring of the ancient hovel, or 
of the earliest nest or cave. Modern garments are the 
children of the ancient coverings of leaves and skins, 
as is the modern loom the outgrowth of the simple de- 
vices used in making the first hand-formed cloth, made 
from the finger-twisted threads of the earliest workers 
as they watched the fires and waited for the returning 
fishermen. The modern railway and steamship lines 



17. "Modern civilization recovered and absorbed whatever was 
valuable in the ancient civilizations; and although its contributions 
to the sum of human knowledge have been vast, brilliant and rapid, 
they are far from being so disproportionately large as to overshadow 
the ancient civilizations and sink them into comparative insig- 
nificance. * * * ' 

"The achievements of civilized man, although very great and 
remarkable, are nevertheless very far from sufficient to eclipse the 
works of man as a barbarian. As such he had wrought out and 
possessed all the elements of civilization, excepting alphabetic writing. 
His achievements as a barbarian should be considered in their rela- 
tion to the sum of human progress; and we may be forced to admit 
that they transcend in relative importance all his subsequent works. 
The use of writing, or its equivalent, in hieroglyphics upon stone, af- 
fords a fair test of the commencement of civilization." — ^Morgan: An- 
cient Society, pp. 30-31. 

"Man's intellect is ever the same — it moves in a sphere having 
a fixed and inexpansible upper limit, which has been reached from 
time to time by individual geniuses. But there is an apparent prog- 
ress arising from the fact that from place to place and time to time 
an intellect of equal power finds footing upon the total accomplish- 
ments of his predecessors and uses them as the starting point of 
further successes; not that later generations work with higher or 
more complete intellects, but with larger means accumulated by ear- 
lier generations, with better instruments, so to speak, and so ob- 
tain greater results. So it is of course impossible to deny progress 
in the field of invention and discovery — ^but it would be a mistake 
to explain it from the greater perfection, or the progress of the hu- 
man intellect. An inventive Greek of ancient times, if he had fol- 
lowed Watt, would have invented* the locomotive — and if he could 



56 CLEARING THE GROUND Part I 

are the direct descendants of the old carrying trails 
and the canoe-riding carriers of the savage days. Both 
the modern family and the modern state are the nat- 
ural and inevitable outgrowth of the old gentes, which 
were in turn the children of the groups of the savage 
and animal life which preceded the tribal organiza- 
tions. 

58. Brotherhood.— Modern life has wrought out 
many things at the hands of men. Primitive life 
wrought out the coming of man himself, for it was 
during these thousand centuries of common property 
and society based on kinship— the kinsmen acting co- 
operatively—that the sentiment of brotherhood with- 
in the tribes was so wrought into the life of the race 

have known the arrangement of the electrical telegraph, it certainly 
might have occurred to him to construct a telephone. 

"Between human intellect four thousand years ago and today 
there is no qualitative difference nor any greater development or 
perfection — only the completed labor of all intervening generations 
inures to the advantage of the modern intellect, which, with this ac- 
cumulated supply, to-day accomplishes apparently greater 'miracles' 
than the like intellect four thousand years ago did without it. But, 
in fact, laying aside the advantages of the former, the latter accom- 
plished no less wonderful things." — Gumplowicz: Outlines of Sociology, 
pp. 208-9. 

"The history of a nation's industry must necessarily date back 
to prehistoric times and to the earliest stages of national life. For 
the history of industry is the history of civilization, and a nation's 
economic development must, to a large extent, underlie and influ- 
ence the course of its social and political progress. Hence it has 
been aptly remarked (Cunningham: Growth of Industry, I., p. 7) that 
there is no fact in a nation's history but has some traceable bearing 
on the industry of the time, and no fact that can be altogether ig- 
nored as if it were unconnected with industrial life. The progress 
of mankind is written in the history of its tools' (Walpole: Land of 
of Home Rule, p. 15) ; and to the economic historian the transition 
from the axehead of stone to that of bronze is quite as important as 
a change of dynasty; and certainly, iii its way, it is as serious an 
industrial revolution as the change from the hand-loom to machinery." 
— Gibbins: Industry in England, p. 3. 

"Human progress, from first to last, has been in a ratio not 
rigorously but essentially geometrical. This is plain on the face of 
the facts; and it could not, theoretically, have occurred in any other 
way. Every item of absolute knowledge gained became a factor in 
further acquisitions, until the present complexity of knowledge was 
attained. Consequently, while progress was slowest in time in the 
first period, and most rapid in the last, the relative amount may 



Chap. IV THE ORDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 57 

that it still survives five thousand years^^ of suffering 
and oppression at the hands of the anti-social and un- 
brotherly military power which first transformed so- 
ciety from the basis of kinship and mutual interest into 
that of force, and then used the force to usurp for the 
few the common inheritance of all. 

59. Economic Causes.— During Savagery and Bar- 
barism there were no economic classes— there was no 
world-wide class struggle. But at every step, the eco- 
nomic cause of the new advance is made evident.^^ 
Each new discovery, each new invention, meant new 
life to the world; and, using the new economic agencies, 
the steps were taken which still again led to other and 
to other achievements. 

The use of fire, the bow and arrow, the discovery of 
pottery, the domestication of animals, the discovery 
of the smelting and use of iron, and finally of the al- 

have been greatest in the first, when the achievements of either 
period are considered in their relations to the sum. It may be sug- 
gested as not improbable of ultimate recognition, that the progress 
of mankind in the period of savagery, in its relations to the sum of 
human progress, was greater in degree than it was afterward in the 
three sub-periods of barbarism; and that the progress made in the 
whole period of barbarism was, in like manner, greater in degree than 
it has been since in the entire period of civilization." — Morgan: An- 
cient Society, p. 38. 

18. "It must be regarded as a marvelous fact that a portion of 
mankind five thousand years ago, less or more, attained to civiliza- 
tion." — Morgan: Ancient Society, p. 553. 

19. "A technical want felt by society is more of an impetus to 
science than ten universities." — Engels interpreting the position of 
Marx, quoted by Seligman in "The Economic Interpretation of His- 
tory," p. 59. 

"The stationary condition of the human race is the rule, the 
progressive the exception." — Maine: Ancient Law, p. 23. 

"What I wish particularly to point out is that what man asks 
from the soil is primarily nutrition — only nutrition, a living. It is 
the 'food-quest' which has been so vividly portrayed in American prim- 
itive life by Mindeleff and so fully set forth by Mason: the tribe en- 
slaved by the soil; its laws, religion, customs, hopes, and fears 
wrapped up and submerged in the desperate strife for food.. Only 
where there is a surplus, where wealth rises above want, is it possible 
for the group to free itself from this bondage to the clod, — to become 
more than 'an adscript of the glebe.' 

"The relations between man and the fauna and flora of the re* 



58 CLEARING THE GROUND Part 1 

phabet— these were the creative forces, one after an- 
other, which suggested new advantages, in the long 
struggle for existence, first of individuals, then groups, 
then the gens, then the phratry, then the nation, and 
then a new factor in the world's life, which we shall 
trace in these pages, the creation of clashing economic 
classes and of world-conquest in order to appropriate 
rather than to produce. 

60. Slaves and Soldiers.— A new world of slaves 
and soldiers, struggling against each other, has suc- 
ceeded the old world of tribal brothers struggling for 
each other. Barbarism has ceased. Civilization has 
come. No wonder Carpenter speaks of its ' ^ cause and 
cure. ' ' 

61. Summary.— 1. It will be noticed from the fore- 
going that from the earliest advance of the race until 
the coming of Civilization, co-operative industry, com- 
mon property, and government based on kinship and 
not on force, had covered the whole previous history of 
mankind. 

2. It is seen from this study of primitive industry 
that when man came to use the resources of the earth, 
it never occurred to him for a thousand centuries that 
it could belong to only a portion of the race. When 
he did come to that conclusion, slavery and the sub- 



gion has been traced by Pickering and others in the distribution of 
plants cultivated by man for his food, use, or pleasure. They have 
been rightly named by Gerland 'the levers of his elevation.' Especial- 
ly the cereals supplied him a regular, appropriate, and sufficient nu- 
trition. Their product was not perishable, like fruit, but could be 
stored against the season of cold and want. Their cultivation led 
to a sedentary life, to the clearing and tillage of the soil, to its irriga- 
tion, and to the study of the seasons and their changes." — Brinton: 
The Basis of Social Relations, p. 190. 

"The most advanced portion of the human race were halted, so 
to express it, at certain stages of progress, until some great inven- 
tion or discovery, such as the domestication of animals or the smelt- 
ing of iron ore, gave a new and powerful impulse forward." — Moj?gan: 
Ancient Society, pp. 39-40. 



Chap IV. THE ORDER OF PRIMITIVE PROGRESS 50 

jection of woman came along with the private appro- 
priation of the natural resources. 

3. Again, it will be noticed that in his effort to 
use the earth and to develop its resources as the means 
of his supportj for a like period, all of the people 
worked co-operatively both in the hunting, fishing and 
fighting, by the men, and in the cultivation of the 
soil and the development of household industries, by 
the women, both of which groups lived and worked 
under practical industrial democracies. 

4. It is seen that this common possession of por- 
tions of the earth and the co-operative use of this nat- 
ural working plant by groups of kinsmen, were both 
destroyed by slavery which was established in the 
world by war, and that the wars came because of eco- 
nomic necessity. 

5. It was under co-operative labor and common 
ownership of productive property that the whole line 
of discoveries and achievements were effected which 
make up the triumphs of primitive society. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Name the great periods of man's history and mention the 
particular events which have marked the beginning of each. 

2. What was characteristic of the life of man at the beginning 
of Savagery? 

3. What was the occasion for the first division of labor? 

4. What was the form of the first social organization and of the 
first family? 

5. Trace the nation back through the simpler organizations out 
of which it has grown. 

6. Trace the family in the same manner. 

7. During what periods did co-operative industry and the com- 
mon ownership of productive property exist, and how were they over- 
thrown ? 

8. What was the relation of slavery to barbarian war? 

9. State some of the achievements of primitive industry. 

10. Name fruits, grains, animals and tools in use at the begin- 
ning of civilization. 

11. How do the achievements of primitive society compare with 
modern inventions? 

12. Whence came the sentiment of brotherhood? 

13. What things marked the beginning of civilization? 



CHAPTER V 

SUMMARY OF PART FIRST 

62. A Summary of Part First.— 1. Society is di- 
vided into economic classes: One class is composed of 
masters, the other class is composed of servants. 

2. The basis of this mastery and servitude, and the 
resulting dependence and poverty of the many is 
found in the private ownership and private control of 
the means of producing the means of life. 

3. In the study of current institutions, it is neces- 
sary to look for their origins, in the usages of the ear- 
lier forms of social life. 

4. This method of investigation is the scientific 
method. It is simply the theory of evolution applied 
to the study of social and economic problems. 

5. Following this method it is found that, thus far, 
in the life of the race, the world has been so incom- 
pletely mastered and industry has been so inadequately 
organized, as to require the expenditure of so large a 
share of human energy in the battle for life, that it may 
fairly be said that the economic factors have been the 
dominant factors in human life. 

6. During the primitive life of the race, economic 
development did not take the form of class struggles. 
Nevertheless, each great advance in man's improve- 

60 



Chap. V. A SUMMARY OF PART FiRST 61 

ment during this period was the result of an economic 
cause— for example, the discovery of the use of fire, the 
invention of the bow and arrow, the making of pottery, 
the domestication of animals, the smelting of iron and 
the invention of the alphabet, have been seen to have 
been events of epoch-making power and importance. 

7. The barbarian inter-tribal wars resulted in mak- 
ing masters of some tribes and slaves of others, and in 
this way made a beginning of the economic class war. 

8. Great advances were made during savagery and 
barbarism, and throughout the many thousands of 
years of these periods, there were no economic masters 
or economic dependents; government was based on kin- 
ship and mutual interest, and both co-operative labor 
and collective ownership prevailed throughout this 
primitive life of the race, and ceased only with the 
coming of slavery and the subjection of woman, both 
of which were caused by war. 



PART II 
THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM 



CHAPTER VI 

SLAVERY 

63. Evolution.— In the study of the evolution of 
capitalism, it should be borne in mind that capitalism, 
in its modern form, had its roots in the life of primi- 
tive society. The complete story of the evolution of 
capitalism would involve the whole story, thus far, 
of the social development of the race. Single effects 
are not results of single causes.^ All social causes, 
in proportion to their power, co-operate together in 
the production of all sQcial effects. Each effect in its 

1. Unfortunately, few historians have thought it worth while 
to study seriously the economic factors in the history of nations. 
They have contented themselves with the intrigues and amusements 
of courtiers and kings, the actions of individual statesmen or the 
destructive feats of military heroes. They have often failed to ex- 
plain properly the great causes which necessitated the results they 
claim to investigate. But just as it is impossible to understand the 
growth of England without a proper appreciation of the social and in- 
dustrial events which rendered that growth possible, and provided the 
expenses which that growth entailed, so it will be impossible to pro- 
ceed in the future without a systematic study of econmic and indus- 
trial affairs. For the great political questions of the day are becom- 
ing more and more economic questions." — Gibbons: Industry in Eng- 
land, p. 4/3. 



Chap. VI SLAVERY 63 

turn becomes a social cause for further social effects. 
Hence the chain of the development of capitalism may 
be traced backward throughout the life of the race. 
Nevertheless, it can be fairly said that the leading 
features of capitalism— that is, private monopoly in the 
ownership, private tyranny in the management, and 
inequality of opportunity in the use of the means of 
producing the means of life— made their beginning in 
the world with the coming of slavery. But slavery 
came as the direct result of the inter-tribal barbarian 
wars and the military usurpation of the barbarian 
chieftains, and thus the seeds of capitalism were rooted 
in barbarism. In fact, when civilization succeeded bar- 
barism, the passion for the ownership of things had be- 
come the dominant passion of the race.^ 

64. The Struggle for Land.— The permanent pos- 
session of the herds and lands by the tribes, had be- 
come of the most vital importance as a means of life. 
The growing tribes had struggled with each other as 
they had trespassed on each other's territory.^ Inter- 

2. Morgan: Ancient Society pp. 6, 540. 

3. "The first step in the struggle of races is that of the con- 
quest of one race by another. Among races that have pushed their 
boundaries forward until they meet and begin to overlap war usually 
results. If one race has devised superior weapons or has greater 
strategic abilities than the other it will triumph and become a con- 
quering race. The other race drops into the position of a conquered 
race. The conquering race holds the conquered race down and makes 
it tributary to itself. At the lowest stages of this process there was 
practical extermination of the conquered race. The Hebrews were 
scarcely above this stage in their wars upon the Canaanites. but that 
seems to have been a special outburst of savagery in a considerably ad- 
vanced race. The lowest savages are mostly cannibals. After the 
carnivorous habit had been formed, the eating of human iiesh was a 
natural consequence of the struggle of the races. The most primitive 
wars were scarcely more than hunts, in which man was the mutual 
game of both contending parties. But at a later and higher stage 
head hunting,, cannibalism, and the extermination of the conquered 
race, were gradually replaced by different forms of slavery. Success 
in conquering weaker races tended to develop predatory or military 
races, and the art of organizing armies received special attention. Such 
armies were at length used to make war on remote races, who were 
thus conquered and held under strong military power. Here the con- 
quered would so greatly outnumber the conquering that extermination 



64 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part 11 

tribal alliances had produced the nations, and great 
armies were the result. The chief men of the tribes, 
as well as of the nations, had become important as 
military leaders. 

65. Tribes Enslaved.— The conquered tribes were 
enslaved by the conquerors. As the victorious tribes 
extended their territory and enlarged their armies, the 
maintenance of these armies involved great industrial 
organizations. The military leader became not only 
the commander in battle, but also the master of in- 
dutry.^ The workers were the tribes conquered in 
war and then made slaves to provide the support of 
their conquerors. 

6Q. The Social and the Military.— The mutual rela- 
tions of the people within the tribes became of less im- 
portance than the relations of all of the people to 
these new inter-tribal or national organizations. The 

would be impracticable. The practice was then to preserve the con- 
quered race and make it tributary to the wealth of the conquering 
race. Prisoners of war were enslaved, but the mass of the people was 
allowed to pay tribute." — Ward: Pure Sociology, pp. 204-205. 

''The theory seems to be well settled that this archaic form of 
organization and of collective land-ownership by groups of men, 
united by the family tie, was common to all the races which com- 
pose the Aryan family. The traces of such a system have been estab- 
lished from Ireland to Hindoostan. * * '^ With the first advance 
in the path of civilization the principle of collective land-ownership 
naturally gave way to individual ownership. And such has been the 
transition through which the village community in most countries 
has passed." — Taylor: The Origin and Growth of the English Con- 
stitution, Vol. L, p. 100. 

4. "The barbarous isolation of families ceases when the strongest 
and most powerful force the weaker into their service. It is now that 
the division of labor [by classes] really begins: The victor devotes 
himself entirely to work of a higher order, to statesmanship, war, 
worship, etc.; the very doing of which is generally a pleasure in itself. 
The vanquished perform the lower. The one-half of the people are 
forced to labor for something beyond their own brute wants." — 
Roscher: Political Economy, Vol. I., p. 211. 

"There is a double life in the state; we can clearly distinguish 
the activities of the state as a whole, as a single structure, from 
those emanating from the social elements. 

"The activities of the state as a whole originate in the sov- 
ereign class, which acts with the assistance or with the compulsory 
acquiescence of - the subject class. * * * In particular, the su- 
perior class seeks to make the most productive use of the subject 
classes; as a rule this leads to oppression and can always be con- 



Chap.VI SLaVEHV 65 

old relations had been based on. kinship and mutual 
interest, and the affairs of the tribes had been admin- 
istered by practical co-operative democracies. The 
new organizations were subject to military necessity, 
rather than to the instincts of kinship; and the rela- 
tions of the military organization extended to the 
whole body of the people found on any given territory. 
Before this the life of the world had been made up 
most largely of social relations. The word social is 
derived from the word * ^ societas, ' ^ or ^* society,'* and 
means— of, or pertaining to, the affairs of the whole 
body of the people. The people were everything, and 
the city did not exist. Whatever organization did ex- 
ist was solely for the benefit of the people, and had 
been controlled by them through their tribal associa- 
tions. Now the city made its appearance, and the city 



sidered as exploitation." — Gumplowicz: Outlines of Sociology, pp. 
116-17. 

"There have been three ways in which great political bodies 
have arisen. The earliest and lowest method was that of conquest 
without incorporation. A single powerful tribe conquered and an- 
nexed its neighbors without admitting them to a share in the gov- 
ernment. It appropriated their military strength, robbed them of 
most of the fruits of their labor, and thus virtually enslaved them. 
Such was the origin of the great despotic empires of Oriental type. 
Such states degenerate rapidly in military strength. Their slavish 
populations accustomed to be starved and eaten or massacred by the 
tax-gatherers, become unable to fight, so that great armies of them will 
flee before a handful of freemen, as in the case of the ancient Per- 
sians and the modern Egyptians. To strike down the executive head 
of such an assemblage of enslaved tribes is to effect the conquest or 
the dissolution of the whole mass, and hence the history of Eastern 
peoples has been characterized by sudden and gigantic revolutions. 

"The second method of forming great political bodies was that of 
conquest with incorporation. The conquering tribe, while annexing 
its neighbors, gradually admitted them to a share in the govern- 
ment. In this way arose the Roman empire, the largest, the most 
stable, and in its best days the most pacific political aggregate the 
world has yet seen. Throughout the best part of Europe its con- 
quests succeeded in transforming the ancient predatory type of so- 
ciety into the modern industrial type. It effectually broke up the prim- 
eval clan- system, with its narrow ethical ideas, and arrived at the 
broad conception of rights and duties coextensive with humanity. But 
in the method upon which Rome proceeded there was an essential ele- 
ment of weakness. The simple device of representation by which po- 
litical power is equally retained in all parts of the community while 



66 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

was everything and the people were nothing. The old 
city was a fortified place. It was sometimes entirely 
without population, but it was a walled city, with or 
without population, ready to be occupied and to be 
used in case of need for military purposes.^ 

67. The City— Politics and Militarism.— The orig- 
inal city was a military affair and the original poli- 
tics had to do with the affairs of a military establish- 
ment. The word ^^ politics" is derived from the word 
^ Spoils," which is the Greek word for ^^city," and the 
city from which the meaning of ^'politics" was orig- 
inally taken, was a fortified place. Society, based orig- 
inally on the purpose of providing for the welfare of 
the whole people, gave way to the state, based on the 
military necessities of the fortified cities. The admin- 
istration of public affairs was no longer democratic, 
but military. The activities of the state were two-fold, 
at home and abroad. At home its activities were in- 
dustrial, abroad they were military. Away from home, 
the state acted through a soldier. At home, the state 

its exercise is delegated to a central body, was entirely unknown to 
the Romans. Partly for this reason, and partly because of the ter- 
rible military pressure to which the frontier was perpetually ex- 
posed, the Roman government became a despotism which gradually 
took on many of the vices of the Oriental type. The political weakness 
which resulted from this allowed Europe to be overrun by peoples .or- 
ganized in clans and tribes and for some time there was a partial retro- 
gression toward the disorder characteristic of primitive ages. The 
retrogression was but partial and temporary, however; the exposed 
frontier has been steadily pushed eastward into the heart of Asia; 
tlie industrial type of society is no longer menaced by the predatory 
type; the primeval clan-system has entirely disappeared as a social 
force; and warfare, once ubiquitous and chronic, has become local 
and occasional. 

"The third and highest method of forming great political bodies 
is that of federation. The element of fighting was essential in the two 
lower methods, but in this it is not essential. Here there is no con- 
quest, but a. voluntary union of small political groups into a great 
political group. Each little group preserves its local independence 
intact, while forming part of an indissoluble whole. Obviously this 
method of political union requires both high intelligence and high 
ethical development." — Fiske: The Destiny of Man, pp. 86-90. See also 
Fiske: American Political Ideas. 

5. Kitto: Vol, II., p. 868. 



Chap. VI SLAVERY 67 

acted by means of a slave, whose obedience and in- 
dustry were enforced by a soldier. The military or- 
ganization and the military spirit commanded both 
the soldier and the slave, and in both cases the motive 
for action was no longer for the common good of all, 
but the purpose now was to strengthen and support 
the military establishment. The great cities of the 
ancient world were simply military camps and slave 
camps combined.^ 

68. Conquered Tribes and Private Lands.— The 
employment of these slaves for this purpose also in- 
volved the use of great tracts of land, and the same 
military power which had enslaved the conquered 
tribes took— also by the same power of war— the lands 
along with the people. It has been seen how the land 
was made the personal estates of the military leaders, 
and how the territorial extension of the early states 
was affected by the inter-tribal alliances, which in- 
creased the number of soldiers; and the inter- tribal 
wars, which both increased the slave populations and 
the great privately owned landed estates. 

69. Not the Oldest Form of Labor.— All of the an- 
cient civilizations were built on slavery. This fact has 
led to the general impression that slavery was the old- 

6. "From the moment that private possession in the means of 
production arose, exploitation and the division of society into two 
hostile classes, standing opposed to each other through their inter- 
est, also began." — Liebknecht: Socialism — What It Is, and What It 
Seeks to Accomplish," p. 39. 

*'It is well understood by historical students that ancient slavery 
was a great step in human progress. But, whatever its merits, the 
consideration of slavery introduces a much larger subject — the place 
of class relations in social development as a whole. In its material 
aspect, property in men is an institution by means of which one 
class of people appropriates the labor products of another class 
without economic repayment. This relation is brought about by other 
institutions than slavery. For instance, if a class engross the land 
of a country, and force the remainder of the population to pay rent. 
either in kind or in money, for the use of the soil, such a procedure 
issues, like slavery, in the absorption of labor products by an upper 
class without economic repayment. 

"We have observed the origin of social cleavage into upper and 



68 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

est and original form of industry. It was seen in the 
preceding chapters that such was not the case. Slavery 
was not a relic of barbarism. There is no evidence 
that slavery was an institution of primitive life. On 
the contrary, evidence that it did not exist until the 
closing years of barbarism and the beginning of civil- 
ization, is overwhelming. It is important that these 
points be borne in mind. 

70. We can afford to dwell on this matter at some 
length. It has an important bearing on the develop- 
ment and on the relations of all social and industrial 
institutions. 

It is held, then, that chattel slavery did not exist 
prior to the beginning of civilization, in fact, that the 
beginning of civilization is especially marked by the 
beginning of slavery. And this is held to be the case 
for the following reasons : 

71. Traditions.— 1. The usages and traditions of 
the Germanic tribes all imply the prevalence of liberty. 
Chattel slavery had no existence among them. The 
men sold into slavery as the result of Eoman conquest, 
were captives from among the freemen of the fields 
and forests of the North. The had to be made slaves 
after they had been made captives."^ 

72. Roman Law.— 2. According to the Eoman 
law all men were assumed to have been free by the 
laws of nature, and slaves to have become such only by 
the contrary law of nations, that is, by conquest. There 
is no other reasonable explanation of this Eoman in- 
terpretation of nature— so directly in conflict with 
their own national law, then in force— than that it was 

lower strata,, on this general basis at the inception of social develop- 
ment. If we scrutinize the field carefully, it is evident that one of 
the greatest and most far-reaching facts of ancient civilization, as 
it emerges from the darkness of prehistoric times, as well as one of 
the most considerable facts of subsequent history is just this cleav- 
age of society into two principal classes." — Wallis: American Jour- 
nal of Sociology, Vol. VII., pp. 764-65, May, 1902. 

7. Guizot; History of Civilization (Lectures), Chapter II. 



Chap. VI SLAVERY 69 

a survival by tradition of a preceding condition in 
which all men were free.^ 

73. Primitive Democracies.— 3. Slavery nowhere 
originated by the tribes making slaves of their own 
members. The Theocracy of the Jews, the Republic of 
the Romans, and the Democracies of the Greeks, were 
survivals within these ancient tribes of the original 
democracies which, until destroyed by war, existed 
among all primitive peoples. Primitive tribal lines had 
to be broken down before slavery could exist. They 
were broken down by war and at the beginning of civil- 
ization. The early Hebrew scriptures mark the passage 
of the Jews from barbarism into civilization. It is 
quite commonly supposed that the compromise of 
Moses on the subject of slavery was a compromise 
with an old abuse. The contrary is the fact. It was a 
compromise of barbarian liberty with new conditions. 
And even then, the members of the tribes were for- 
bidden to make slaves of the members of their own 
race.^ 

The Mosaic lajid system was, in the same way, a 
survival, modifying the early horrors of the private 
appropriation of the earth. It was not a new idea 
specially provided and devised to make right old 
wrongs. It was a direct inheritance of barbarian 
usage outliving barbarism and, with a religious sanc- 
tion, vainly striving to control the economic conditions 
of a new era. 

74. Old Words for Slave.— 4. Among the Greeks, 
the word slave is also the word for captive, and in 
reading in the Greek language one can tell whether a 
slave or a captive is referred to only by the relations 
of this word to other words in the same passage. The 
word slave itself indicates the origin of slavery. It 

8. "By natural right all men are born free; by right of nations 
(1. e., conquest) slavery has come in." — Justinian Code, Book IV., 
L., XVII., 52. 

9. "If thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be 



70 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

comes from the old word Slav, a member of the Sla- 
vonic race. Southern European wars were making cap- 
tives,— and so slaves,— of so many Slavs, or members 
of Slavonic tribes, that the tribal name of the captives 
staid with them in bondage and finally became the 
name applied to all bondmen, regardless of their na- 
tionality.^^ 

If the ancient tribes made slaves only of captives, 
if the members of their own tribes were exempt— then 
it is clear that the beginning of conquest was the be- 
ginning of slavery. But the beginning of conquest was 
the beginning of civilization. 

75. Primitive Burials.— 5. Under slavery indus 
try is discredited. The primitive peoples buried with 
their dead the tools of their simple industry.^ ^ Things 
so buried with the dead were marks of honor. Under 
slavery they would have been marks of disgrace. 
Either primitive peoples studied to discredit their 
dead, or slavery did not exist. 

Who would think of burying with the remains oi a 
departed relative, who had been . imprisoned, the 
striped clothes or the handcuffs— in order to extend 
the evil record to the tomb I - Either primitive peoples 
thus treated their own dead, or slavery did not exist. 

76. Indians Without Slaves.— 6. Savages, whose 
condition of advance toward civilization has not 
reached that point which had been reached by the an- 
cient peoples when slavery is known to have existed 
among them, do not now have slaves, except as they 
have copied the system from their civilized neighbors. 
The American Indians did not maintain any system of ' 

sold unto thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year 
thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou lettest him 
go free from ithee, thou shalt not let him go empty: thou shalt fur- 
nish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor and 
out of thy winepress : as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou 
shalt give unto him." — Deuteronomy^ Chapter XV., 12-15. 

10. Ingram: History of Slavery, p. 5. 

11. Morgan: Ancient Society. 



Chap. VI SLAVERY 71 

slavery among themselves, and they doggedly died 
when forced into slavery rather than submit to the loss 
of their barbarian liberty.^^ The Indians of the In- 
dian Territory copied the institution of black slavery 
from their white neighbors. And when the whole 
country was reorganized politically on the question of 
the disposition of the western public lands, the Indians 
of that territory were divided along the same lines as 
their white neighbors. It is an interesting thing to 
note that when the war was over, the Indians who had 
sided with the North sought to have their tribes dis- 
own those who had served with Confederate troops 
and so exclude them from any interest in the tribal 
lands. The United States government appointed a 
special commission to investigate the matter, and the 
commission not only recommended the government to 
maintain the tribal rights of those who had been south- 
em troops, but it went further and insisted that the 
negroes, who before the war had been the slaves of 
the Indians, were also entitled to full tribal rights and 
hence to their share of the tribal property. The gov- 
ernment adopted the recommendation and enforced 
that arrangement. But that was among the Indians. 
In no other portion of the country were property 
rights of the emancipated negroes, in the social val- 
ues of the community, recognized. 

77. Negroes Not Originally in Slavery.— The Afri- 
can negroes, who were sold into slavery in Africa by 
the victorious tribes or by their military masters, were 
not slaves in Africa. They were free barbarians, or 

12. "To the barbarian of the lower stage a slave was of no use. 
The American Indians therefore, treated their vanquished enemies 
in quite a different way from nations of a higher stage. The men 
were tortured or adopted as brothers into the tribe of the victors. 
The women were married or likewise adopted with their surviving 
children. The human labor power at this stage does not yet pro- 
duce a considerable amount over and above its cost of subsistence. 
But the introduction of cattle raising, metal industry, weaving, and 
finally agriculture wrought a change. Just as the once easily ob- 



72 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

savages. So determined were they not to become 
slaves that some thirty per cent, of all the negro cap- 
tives died in the process of being forced into slavery, 
not by barbarians or savages, but by the most highly 
civilized countries in the world. And so it is seen that 
slavery was distinctly an institution of civilization. 

For four thousand years, whatever portion of the 
earth was civilized, was fed and clothed by slaves. 
During all this time the barbarian was a freeman, ex- 
cept as captured and forced into slavery by his civil- 
ized neigbors, or except a^ he advanced toward civil- 
isation and began the development of slavery through 
inter-tribal wars after the same manner as slavery had 
at the first been established among the nations already 
civilized. Egypt, Persia, Greece, Carthage and Eome 
were all of them military creations, and the whole life 
of these ancient peoples was made brutal and corrupt, 
not by slavery alone, but by the armies which com- 
pelled the slaves to build the rude camps for those who 
toiled and the thrones and palaces for those who killed. 

78. Cruelties.— It is not necessary— and it would 
be impossible— to state the horrors of these long cen- 
turies of bondage. Men, women and children, philoso- 
phers, poets, artists, statesmen, the wisest and bravest 
of men, were condemned to slavery by men of their 
own race— and frequently in every way their inferiors^^ 
—and held in bondage, where they were chained to- 
gether in gangs and flogged to their tasks without 
mercy and slain without redress. The slave had lost 
all rights in war, so it was held, before he was made a 

tainable wives now had an exchange value and were bought, so 
labor power was now procured, especially since the flocks had definite- 
ly become private property. The family did not increase as rapidly 
as the cattle. More people were needed for superintending; for this 
purpose the captured enemy was available, and, besides, he could 
be increased by breeding like the cattle." — Engels : Origin of the Family, 
p. 67. 

13. "So in the midst of the magnificence of the Roman power, 
we perceive only a confused mass of proletaires, enslaved, free, do« 



Chap. VI SLAVERY r# 

slave in the first place. And hence the masters held 
the power of life and death, the power to compel all 
degrees of suffering and all manner of degradation, 
the power to enforce unwilling and unmentionable de- 
bauchery. The innocence of childhood, the helpless- 
ness of those outworn with toil and with the years, the 
enforced nakedness and debauchery of women, every 
faculty and function of whose bodies were held as the 
property of others; strong men compelled to slay each 
other for the entertainment of seeing them die together 
—these were the toys with which brutality and lust 
amused themselves for forty centuries. 

79. Products of Slave Labor.— The cities, palaces 
and pyramids of Egypt, the hanging gardens and the 
wide and endless walls of Babylon, the temples, the 
harbors, the ships and markets of Greece, the stone 
roads which traversed all lands of the then known 
world, the fortresses, the camps, the villas and the 
mines, the pavements, waterways, coliseums and the 
fields and the vineyards of Eome, and across the Medi- 
terranean and in Spain, the works of Eome's greatest 
rival, Carthage,— all were the products of the toil of 
slaves. 

80. Slavery in the United States.— Something 
ought to be said about slavery and serfdom in the 
United States. The old slavery, which made slaves or 
serfs of many of the ancestry of the people who finally 
became the settlers of this country, had practically dis- 
appeared when the enslavement of the black man was 
undertaken in Europe. It was never able to make any 
headway in the old country, where wage labor could 
be secured on such terms as always made the labor of 

mestic and artisan, who work to furnish supplies for the unproductive 
consumption of the great owners of capital and of lands. The liberal 
arts, so glorious and so noble, are abandoned to servile hands; medi- 
cine even is practiced only by slaves." — Blanqui: History of Political 
Economy, p. 57. 

(On page 83, same work, Blanqui speaks of "ancient civilization, 
wholly founded on slavery.") 



?4 THE EVOLUTION OP CAPITALISM PartU 

the black slave unprofitable. The cotton, sugar and 
tobacco plantations of the new world, however, fur- 
nished an opening where labor was so scarce and the 
profits were so great that the black slave worker could 
be maintained at a profit for his master; and so, in 
countries producing these things, the slavery of a sub- 
ject race outlived the institution of slavery in other 
countries where wage workers were numerous, and the 
opportunities for production limited to the usual em- 
ployments.^^ It is needless to argue that the black 
man would always have worked better for wages. The 
fact is, that he could not have been obtained for pay 
at any price. The destruction of his liberty was the 
sole condition on which he could be secured at all. 
When force no longer kidnaped and compelled the 
African to become a worker, civilization had no re- 
ward by which he could be induced to accept what the 
employer could give in exchange for his African life. 
Immigration continued from civilized Europe, not 
from barbarian Africa. 

81. Destroyed by War— Wage System Pays Better. 
—Negro chattel slavery was incidentally destroyed by 
the war to preserve the Union. The former masters 
have acquiesced in this, because, with the black man 
once in the mill which civilization provides, it is found 
on actual experience that he will produce so much foi 
so little pay, that it is more profitable to hire him than 
to own him outright. It was for this reason that slav- 
ery died without a struggle in all of the old northern 
states. It is of the greatest interest to follow the aban- 
donment of slavery in these states. Slavery had for- 

14. "The planting of sugar and tobacco can afford the expense of 
slave cultivation. The raising of corn, it seems, in the present times, 
cannot. In the English colonies, in which the prir^cipal produce is 
corn, the far greater part of the work is done by freemen. * * * 
In our sugar colonies the whole work is done by slaves." — Adam 
.Smith: Wealth of Nations, Book III.. Chapter 2. Published in 1776. 
This is of special value as giving the convictions of the students of 



Chap. VI SLAVERY 75 

merly existed throughout the North. Not only were 
black men held as chattels, but white men as well. In 
fact, white slavery was already in existence in the 
colonies when the Dutch traders disposed of their first 
cargo of blacks in Virginia. And the king of England 
is known to have been a party to the capturing by press 
gangs, of his own good English subjects, and winking 
at their sale into slavery in the colonies. 

82. White Slavery in America,— The beginning of 
black slavery was made in 1620, but the first black 
slaves were set to work in America as the fellow- 
workers of white men already in slavery on the black 
man's arrival.^^ The impossibility of carrying on 
profitable slave plantations, and the rise in manufac- 
tures in the northern states greatly increased the 
number of European immigrants into those states. As 
soon as the hired worker was found to be more profit- 
able than the slave laborer, the black men were ^^sold 
South" or given their liberty. White slavery does 
not seem to have survived the Revolutionary War. In 
fact, a large share of the white men sold into American 
slavery, were men taken from the prisons of England ; 

these matters when slavery was still in force. The invention of the 
cotton gin afterwards added cotton to the list of employments where 
slaves could be supported by the products of slave labor and leave a 
considerable surplus to be used or wasted by their masters. 

15. "In the early days of Virginia and Maryland the slave was 
usually not a negro, but an Englishman, condemned either penally 
or by contract to a limited period of bondage. As far as we can 
judge from the scanty and scattered records at our command, the 
condition and character of the indented servant underwent a marked 
change during the sevententh century, and a change for the worse. 
At the outset this class was supplied from two sources. A few were 
felons, usually those with whom capital punishment had been com- 
muted to colonial servitude. The cases, however, do not seem to have 
been numerous, and probably had but little effect on the general char- 
acter of the population. The bulk of the indented servants in Vir- 
ginia were laborers who bound themselves for a fixed term of service 
with a certainty of becoming small freeholders at the end of that 
period. Gradually the system changed. The great tobacco plantations 
of Virginia needed a larger servile population than could be provided 
by the chance supply of pardoned criminals. Nor were the ultimate 
prospects of an indented servant such as to attract free laborers in 



76 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM PabtII 

and after the Revolution, England established her penal 
colonies elsewhere. In the meantime, it had be- 
come more profitable in this country to hire than to 
own the white man's labor. 

83. Selling Negroes to Themselves.— It is a striking 
comment on the giving of liberty to the black men in 
the North, that the *^ manumission'' papers which gave 
to any particular black man his liberty, usually speci- 
fied that it was done in consideration of long and faith- 
ful service, and the further consideration of the pay- 
ment to the former master by the freedman of a sum 
which in every three years amounted to more than the 
negro's market value. It was further provided in 
these papers, that in default of any of these payments, 
these papers should become void and the negro return 
to his former master and to his previous condition of 
servitude. So it is seen that the negro usually secured 
his liberty by making his liberty more profitable to 
his master than had been his servitude. Formerly the 

any number. The market was indeed partly furnished by political 
prisoners. There were few ages of English history in which this re- 
source would have insured so constant a supply as in the latter half of 
the seventeenth century. Penruddock's attempt against the Common- 
wealth in 1655, the Scotch rebellion in 1666, the rising of th West un- 
der Monmouth, the Jacobite insurrection in 1715, each furnished its 
share of prisoners to the colonies. But the demand was far in ex- 
cess of such precarious aids, and, as might have been expected, it soon 
produced a regular and organized supply. It became a trade to fur- 
nish the plantations with servile labor drawn from the off-scourings 
of the mother country. 

"When the Colonial Board came into being in 1661, not the least 
important of its duties was the control of the trade in indented 
servants. In that year a committee was appointed to consider the 
best means of furnishing labor to the plantations by authorizing con- 
tractors to transport criminals, beggars, and vagrants. More im- 
portant than the encouragement of this trade was the control and di- 
rection of it. The evils of the system were two-fold. On the one 
hand, the young, the inexperienced and the friendless were at the 
mercy of the kidnapers' 'spirits,' as they were called, who forced or 
beguiled them on shipboard and transported them to the colonial 
market. Children and apprentices were stolen. All those, and in a 
lawless age such as this was, there were many, of whom profligacy, 
cupidity, or malevolence would fain rid themselves, were in danger 
of being consigned to_a life which left small chances of discovery or 
or escape, * * * ^or was this the only danger of the system. 



Chap. VI SLAVERY 77 

master had provided food, clothing and shelter all the 
year round for his slave; and the master was obliged 
to provide and manage the industry which made pos- 
sible the employment of his slave. But under this 
contract manumission arrangement, the master escaped 
all responsibility. The negro was obliged to look for 
some one who could use his labor to an advantage, 
and after keeping for himself the scantiest subsistence, 
turn the balance of his earnings over to his master for 
the privilege of being a free man, that is, for the privi- 
lege of looking for a new master. He was not given 
such liberty as enabled him to keep for himself the 
products of his own labor any more than while in out- 
right slavery. 

84. The Slave-Dealing North.— The share which 
the North had in establishing southern slavery ought 
also to be mentioned. Here is a sample of the circle 
completed by an ordinary New England business 
transaction in the earlier days. Lumber and fish were 

The Bristol slave ships served not only as a prison for the innocent, 
but as a refuge for the guilty. Runaway apprentices, faithless hus- 
bands and wives, fugitive thieves and murderers, were enabled to es- 
cape beyond the reach of civil or criminal justice. The system how- 
ever, was yet too necessary to be given up. The statesmen of 
Charles I's reign betook themselves with energy to the problems of 
Colonial government. The question of slavery was perhaps the most 
difficult that came before them, and they met it with judgment, and, 
it would seem, with fair success. * * * The evil still went on, 
as we learn from the records of the next reign. * * * We read, 
too, how the magistrates of Bristol drove a thriving trade by con- 
demning criminals and transferring them as articles of merchandise 
from one to another. * * * xhe publicity thus given to the mat- 
ter may have brought the Order of Council in March, 1686, directed alike 
against kidnapers and fraudulent servants. This provided, ( 1 ) that all 
contracts between emigrant servants and their masters should be for- 
mally executed before two magistrates, and that a register of such 
bargains should be kept; (2) that no adult should be transported but 
by his own free consent, and no child without the consent of either par- 
ent or master; (3) in the case of children under fourteen the consent 
of the parent as well as the master was necessary, unless the former 
was not forthcoming. That a system which imposed no check upon kid- 
naping of friendless orphans, or the sale of children by their own 
parents, should have been accepted as satisfactory, is a startling illus- 
tration of the temper of the age, and of that vast gulf which in some 
matters severs us from our forefathers. After this no trace is to b« 



78 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

sold in the West Indies in exchange for molasses; the 
molasses made into rum in New England; the rum ex- 
changed with African tribes for slaves ; the slaves sold 
to cotton- growers for cotton; the cotton made into 
clothes in the New England factories,— and a part of 
the product exchanged for more molasses; to make 
more rum; to get more slaves; to get more cotton; to 
make more clothes; to get more molasses, etc., etc. 
The balance of the products were used to invest in 
and to monopolize western land, to enlarge her own 
manufacturing interests, to support schools, colleges, 
and churches; and thus to help lay the foundations for 
New England's greatness. And at a later day, when 
the slave trade had been driven from the sea, some of 
the same funds were used to support abolition soci- 
eties, notwithstanding the fact that the New England 
business man was usually on the side of the ^'broad- 
cloth mob ' ' and against the abolitionists. 

In fact, the southern states had clean hands as com< 
pared with northern and European traders, who en- 
acted all the horrors of the '' middle passage'' and se- 
cured for these traders all the profits obtained for the 

found of any legislative attempt to cope with the abuses. That, how- 
ever, may be attributed not to the improvement of the system, but to 
the fact that it was gradually giving way before a rival form of in- 
dustry. * * * Por it is an economic law of slavery, that where it 
exists it iQust exist without a rival. It can only succeed where it is a 
predominant form of labor. '"" ''' "' The new system (African 
slavery), indeed, did not win the day wholly without a struggle. A 
Virginia clergyman, writing in 1724, deplores the number of negroes 
and the consequent discouragement to the poorer class of white emi- 
grants. In South Carolina more than one effort was made to stem 
the tide. In 1678 an act was passed offering a bounty on the importa- 
tion of indented white servants, Irish only excepted. That they were 
designed to counteract the influx of black slaves is shown by the pro- 
vision that they were to be distributed among the planters, one to every 
six negroes. In 1712 a more elaborate attempt was made in the same 
direction. An act was passed which declared in its preamble the impor- 
tance of increasing the numbers of the population. A bounty of four- 
teen pounds per head was offered for the importation of British subjects 
between twelve and thirty yearg of age. It is not too much to say that 
the \^iole order of Southern society, its manner of life and forms of in- 



Chap. VI SLAVERY 79 

work of introducing black slavery into the southern 
states.^^ 

85. Slave Labor Unprofitable— Wage System Im- 
possible Under Barbarism.— Adam Smith contends 
that at no time was the labor of slaves really profitable. 
He argues in effect, and with good reason, that the 
ancient slave labor would have been more produc-. 
tive if it could have been organized under the modern 
wage system. But this takes it for granted that mod- 
ern industrial life could have been organized out of 
the materials from which the ancient slave was made. 
The man who in ancient times became a slave was a 
proud, high-spirited freeman, more defiant than a mod- 
ern factory worker. He was in the possession of his 
own lands and in the habit of producing for himself. 
No one collected from him either rent or interest, nor 
compelled him to earn profits for others before he was 
permitted to create a living for himself. He had for 

dustry, were fashioned by slavery. We have already seen how the early 
conditions of Virginia life tended to throw the land of the colony into 
the hands of a few large proprietors. That tendency was confirmed 
and intensified by slavery. For slave labor can only be employed profit- 
ably in large gangs, and such gangs can only be worked on wide terri- 
tories and in the hands of great capitalists." — Doyle : English Colonies 
in America, pp. 382***85, 387, 388, 391. 

16. "The world was a great slave holder throughout the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, and during the greater part of the 
nineteenth. Nor were the negroes the only slaves in Virginia or in the 
other colonies, 

"On account of the crowded condition of English jails, many con- 
victs were transported to America and sold for a term of years as 'in- 
dentured servants.' White slaves and black worked side by side in 
the tobacco fields. Sometimes the whites, on becoming free, acquired 
property and social position in the colony. Many led a miserable ex- 
istence, and their descendants were called 'poor whites.' White slavery 
ceased about 1700. Till that time negro slavery was held in cheek, be- 
cause white slaves were often the cheaper. * * * A common notice 
in the newspaper was the announcement of the arrival of a packet and 
the public or private sale of a 'serving-man' or 'serving-woman.' In 
Philadelphia and Baltimore a lively business went on i'n this purchase 
and sale of redemptioners. 

"Not infrequently these were better educated than those who 
bought them, and they were employed to teach school or keep books. 

"For a time most of the schools in Maryland were conducted by 
convicts or redemptioners." — ^Thorpe? A History of the American Peo- 
ple, pp. 37, 145. 



80 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

his own use the fnll product of his toil.^*^ It is more 
than likely that the only way by which he could be 
made to become a producer for another's use, was by 
the process by which he was deprived of his Own 
equipment in lands and herds, and of his liberty as 
well. It has been said that there has never been a race 
of industrial workers produced without first going 
through a period of slavery on their way to the indus- 
trial habit. This does not dispute the position of 
Adam Smith. It only confirms the suggestion above 
that, in all probability, no barbarian could be found 
who would willingly exchange the leisure and liberty 
of his barbarian life for any rewards which the mod- 
ern wage system could offer in their stead. If the in- 
dustrial habit is to be one of the fixed characteristics 
of man in his final development, then the long centu- 
ries of suffering under slavery, and other forms of in- 
dustrial subjection, may have at least rendered the 
service of the pain and travail of a new birth for the 
race.^^ 



"The United Colonies conformed to the usage of their day by sell- 
ing into foreign bondage their foes taken in arms. A few, convicted 
of killing people 'otherwise than in the way of war/ were executed. 
Some years later Charles II. marketed as bondmen his Scotch sub- 
jects taken at Bothwell Bridge. Still later, James II. sold into West 
Indian slavery at least eight hundred and forty of his fellow English- 
men captured in Monmouth's rebellion, and the most refined ladies of 
his court strove for grants of these salable prisoners, not for purposes 
of mercy, but to replenish their dainty purses." — Goodwin: The Pilgrim 
Republic, p. 562. 

17. "The experience of all ages and nations, I believe, demon- 
strates that the work done by slaves, though it appears to cost only their 
maintenance, is, in the end, the dearest of any." — Adam Smith: Wealth 
of Nations, Book III., Chapter 2. Read also Book I., Chapter 8, same 
work. 

18. "The number of conquering races has always been relatively 
small and the number of conquered races has of course been corro 
spondingly large. This came at length to mean that the 'ruling classed 
constituted only a small fraction of the population of the world, while 
the subject classes made up the great bulk of the population. At the 
time that men began to compile rude statistics of population, which 
was sparingly done before the beginning of our era, it was found that 
the slaves far outnumbered the 'citizens' of all countries. In Athens 
there was such a census taken jn the year 309 B. C, when there was 



Chap. VI SLAVERY 81 

86. Emancipation Forbidden.— Whatever may have 
been true as to the comparative value of slave labor 
and wage labor at the beginning of the period during 
which the world 's work was done by chattel slaves, 
at a later date slave labor was put to the test with 
the wage labor of freedmen and the displaced farmers 
of the earlier days of the Roman Republic. Two 
hundred years before the beginning of the Christian 
era^ the desperate industry and small wages for which 
these people were willing to work, and the greater 
effectiveness of their labor, made it more profitable 
to hire them than to own slaves. So many of the 
Roman masters took advantage of this fact, that the 
institution of slavery was in danger of abandonment 
and the authority of the law interfered to so tax the 
freeing of the slaves as to give the advantage to slave 
labor. There was more profit in wage labor, but so 
many of the old masters did not know how to satisfy 
their arrogance and aristocratic pride without chattel 
slavery, that the law was invoked by the many masters 
against the few to protect their arrogance, even at the 
expense of their profits.^^ 



found to be 21,000 citizens, 10,000 foreigners, and 400,000 slaves! It is 
not, therefore, a small number of men that have been, thus kept in train- 
ing all these ages, but practically all mankind. It may sound paradox- 
ical to call slavery a civilizing agency, but if industry is civilizing, 
there is no escape from this conclusion, for it is probably no exaggera- 
tion to say that but for this severe school of experience continued 
through thousands of generations, there could have been nothing corre- 
sponding to modern industry. And right here is a corollary which Mr. 
Spencer and other critics of militancy have failed to draw. For slavery, 
as they admit, is the natural and necessary outcome of war. It is the 
initial step in the 'regime of status.' It was therefore in militarism that 
the foundations of industrialism were laid in social adaptation. There 
seems to be no other way by which mankind could have been prepared 
for an industrial era. Or if this is more than we are warranted in say- 
ing, it is at least true that this is the particular way in which men were 
fitted for the role that they have been playing in the past two cen- 
turies." — Ward: Pure Sociology, p. 272. 

19. "The pride of man makes him love to domineer, and nothing 
mortifies him so^ miich as to be obliged to condescend to persuade his 
ijiferiors. Wherever the law allows it, an^ the nature of work can af* 



82 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

87. Summary.— 1. Chattel slavery did not exist 

among primitive peoples. 

2. Chattel slavery came into existence as the result 
of the inter-tribal wars. Private property in land and 
in slaves came into existence by the same process and 
from the same cause. 

3. All ancient civilizations had their economic foun- 
dations in slavery. The ancient world was divided into 
two classes,— soldiers and slaves. 

4. Black slavery in America was a reversion to an 
out-grown institution, and was finally abandoned be- 
cause not profitable in the northern states, and the 
southern states acquiesced in its final overthrow for the 
same reason. 

5. Slavery was never profitable in competition with 
wage labor and existed primarily because force was 
necessary to induce the labor which could not be hired 
on any terms. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. In what way is capitalism related to the primitive life of 
the race? 

2. What leading characteristics of capitalism came into existence 
with slavery? 

3. What was the cause of the inter-tribal barbarian wars? 

4. What was the relation of war to the beginning of slavery ? 

5. How do we know that slavery did not exist in primitive so- 
ciety ? 

6. What were the beginnings of the cities and how were their 
populations made up, and why? 

7. What one thing was true of the labor of all ancient civiliza- 
tions ? 

8. Was slavery ever really profitable? Why could not the wage 
system have succeeded barbarism instead of slavery? 

9. When ancient slavery was found to be unprofitable, why was it 
not abandoned? Quote Adam Smith. 

10. Why did American slavery die in the North without a strug- 
gle? Why is there no demand for a return to slavery in the South? 



ford it, therefore, he will generally prefer the service of slaves i;o that 
of free men." — Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations, Book III., Gh!a,vtei 
2; also see Simonds: Story of Labor, p. 139. 



CHAPTER Vn 

SERFDOM 

89. Workmen Born— Not Captured.— When the 
Roman authority had extended Roman conquest to the 
utmost limits, and the task of protecting the frontier 
had made impossible the further extension of the fron- 
tier, and the limit of expansion by conquest had at 
last been reached, then alliances with new tribes could 
no longer recruit the Roman army, nor conquest of 
new countries provide more slaves. The old order of 
things which had driven the slave at his task and to 
his death, and then replaced him with a fresh captive 
from the eternal war on the frontier— had to yield to 
a milder program. Slaves must be propagated if they 
could not be captured. If they were to be born and 
reared on the estates which they were to serve, then 
the conditions of the slaves must be improved and a 
fixed tenure of their interest in the hut and garden 
must be provided as the necessary condition of their 
providing and caring for the offspring who were to 
become the productive workers of the great estates.^ 

1. "Completion of the Roman system of conquest reduced the sup- 
ply of slaves. * * * and the Romans were obliged to have recourse 
to the milder but more tedious methods of propagation." — Gibbon: De- 
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 2. 

"From the very moment when barbarism advanced to the encoun- 
ter with the ancient -world, one sefes the metamorphosis commentfed; 

83 



84 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

90. The Serf's Home.— The most marked advan- 
tage, therefore, of the serf over the slave, was that 
now the worker could have a family; could be inter- 
ested in his children; could know and love his off- 
spring; would become enthusiastic in the industry 
which would provide for their welfare. It should be 
noticed that the masters granted to the old slaves 
this new privilege for the sake of so securing new 
workers, and as the only way by which the necessary 
workers could be provided. To the worker the new 
home was a boon longed for through the centuries. To 
the master the hovel of the serf was only a breeding 
pen for toilers, and he spoKe contemptuously of the 
serf and of the serf's family as *^his litter.''^ 

91. The Slave Market.— The slave trade did not 
cease with the end of conquest. The occasional cap- 
tive and the child specially reared for the market kept 
up the trade centuries after entering* upon the pro- 
cess which finally transformed nearly all Earope from 
the old slavery into the conditions of the new serfdom. 
In England the English parents depended for no small 
share of their income on the sale of children born unto 
themselves and reared especially for the slave market. 
Bristol was the great slave market of England, and 
this practice did not cease at that city until William 
the Conqueror prohibited it in the eleventh century.^ 

slavery grows weak, because people no longer come from the country of 
slaves. They are more costly ; people treat them as a rare thing, or per- 
haps employ them as a defense. In proportion as the power was lost 
of renewing them by conquest, and their numbers could only be increased 
by their own fecundity, they became members of the Roman family ; they 
lived in a condition nearly like that of our domestics, and their masters 
insensibly lost the habits of despotism which attach to the idea of 
property. Thus was brought about the transition from slavery to serf- 
dom, two regimes very different, since the former enfeoffed man to man, 
and the second simply bound him to the soil." — Blanqui: History of 
Political Economy, pp. 88-89. 

2. Green: History of the English people, p. 260. 

3. "An edict yet more honorable to him [William the Conqueror] 
put an end to the slave trade, which until then had been carried on at the 



Chap. VII SERFDOM 85 

All Southern Europe was well on in this transition 
from the slave^ captured and driven to his death, with- 
out mercy, to the slave born and so treated that he 
would stay on his master's land and reproduce a suc- 
cessor to undertake with him and after him the same 
slave's task, when the Eoman authority collapsed and 
workers had to be reared rather than captured as the 
sole source of supply. 

92. Germanic Tribes in Southern Europe.— When 
the Germanic tribes took possession of the Koman ter- 
ritory, they came down from the north with their bar- 
barian tribal relations still in force. They came into 
a country where the method of making a livelihood 
involved the cultivation of the soil on a larger scale 
than had been practiced among them. They were act- 
ing under the military exigencies of the general dis- 
order which followed the downfall of the Eoman au- 
thority. None of them had ever lived in cities. ' ' They 
looked upon the walls of a town as a prison.''^ The 
general disorder made the support of the great cities 
insecure and uncertain, while they fell into such neg-^ 
lect that from sanitary reasons they became practi- 
cally uninhabitable. The old Eoman masters who were 
engaged in agriculture had gathered into walled towns 
for common defense and for the social advantages in 
that way obtained. The new Germanic military chief- 
tains utterly destroyed many of these towns and 

port of Bristol." — Green: History of the English People, Chapter 2, Sec- 
tion 6. 

"It was not an uncommon practice for the poor in the Middle Ages 
to sell themselves into slavery, or to become slaves by debt." — Brace: 
Gesta Christi, or a History of Human Progress, p. 229. 

"* * * There was a very large export trade in slaves, and 
their prices are recorded in the laws of the period. Bristol was a 
great center of this sad traffic, and remained so till the twelfth century, 
and English and Danish slaves formed an important merchandise in 
the markets of Germany. The devout Gytha, Earl Godwin's wife, is 
said to have shipped whole gangs, especially of young and pretty women, 
for sale in Denmark." — Gibbins: Industry in England, pp. 44-45. 

4. Freeman: General Sketch of History, p. 173. 



86 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

all were treated with neglect and contempt.^ As these 
new chieftains came to cultivate the soil and to provide 
defense, they built castles on their own estates which 
they and their fighting men occupied in idleness 
and revelry while the work was done by the same old 
body of slaves, now sometimes reinforced by their 
former masters who had escaped the sword of the Ger- 
mans only to join the ranks of the enslaved. It was 
by the effort to adapt the social organization of those 
still in barbarism to the industrial conditions of those 
well advanced in civilization, that feudalism came into 
existence. Feudalism was an effort to preserve the 
independence of the tribes of warriors whose democ- 
racy had been destroyed by war; whose means of sup- 
port now required a fixed habitation, and whose re- 
sources now included the slaves as well as the lands of 
the conquered Eomans. It existed side by side with 
slavery, but finally succeeded slavery as the predom- 
inant industrial method for a thousand years. There 
were many kinds and degrees of serfs. There were 
many kinds and degrees among those who were the 
masters under serfdom. The original landholders of 
the northern countries of Europe were finally dis- 
placed and the castles and hovels of feudalism covered 
the British Isles and all of Western Europe to the 
north as far as the Scandinavian^ countries. In the 
northern countries and in England, serfdom was the 
direct creation of a compromise— not between the last 
stages of the old slavery and these new military condi- 
tions, but, instead, a compromise between survivals 
of direct barbarian customs and these new military 
conditions. 

93. In Teutonic and Celtic Countries.— In all Teu- 
tonic and Celtic countries, the old barbarian tribal or 
village interest in all the land, on the part of all the 

5. Adam Smith : Wealth of Nations, Book III., Chapter 3. 



Chap. VIl SERFDOM 8V 

people, still survived. The development of the new 
military powers simply destroyed the earlier chief 
men. The new conquerors consented to the earlier 
civil usages. They simply made new chief men from 
among their own favorites and in a way perpetuated 
the ancient rights to the soil,— only conditioning the 
further enjoyment of these rights on the doing of mili- 
tary service. This was particularly the case in Eng- 
land. When William the Conqueror had made himself 
the master of England, he provided the military estab- 
lishment necessary for his own support, not only by 
appropriating large estates to his own use, but by mak- 
ing the titles to practically all the land in England 
depend on military service.^ This is the reason why 
all England was so quickly covered with castles after 
the conquest. It was a part of the conquest. It 
was the process by which the conquest was made se- 
cure. 

94. Thorold Rogers on the Fifteenth Century.— 
It was from these antecedents that the conditions arose 
which finally made so large a share of agricultural 
Englishmen either self-employers, outright and en- 
tirely, or a mixture of the serf and the wage worker— 
so that great companies of men worked both for 
wages and for themselves. They had their patch of 
four acres with the cottage. They had their strips in 
the cultivated fields and in the meadows. They had 
their rights to fuel and to pasturage from the common 
holdings of the village, and so achieved a condition of 
which Thorold Eogers speaks as ''the golden age of 
labor. ' ' Of these people he says : "I have stated more 
than once that the fifteenth century and the first quar- 
ter of the sixteenth were the golden age of the English 
laborer, if we are to interpret the wages which he 

6. Blackstone: Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. I., 
Book II., Chapter 4. 



88 THE EVOLUTION OP CAPITALISM Part II 

earned by the cost of the necessaries of life. At no 
time were wages, relatively speaking, so high; and at 
no time was food so cheap * * * nor, as I have 
already observed, were the hours long. It is plain that 
the day was one of eight hours. ' '^ 

95. Denial of Political Power.— The trouble with 
all this was that after the conquest the authority of the 
state was never in the hands of these workers; that 
whatever they had, they held only because it seemed 
most advantageous to their masters that it should be 
so. Thorold Rogers states that the conditions con- 
stantly grew worse for three centuries, and, as we 
shall see later, completed the chapter of abuses by the 
military masters appropriating public lands when 
they no longer needed the services of the workers and 
so coming finally to the complete triumph of the wage 
system over serfdom. 

96. Serfdom in America.— All of the charters which 
were given to the early companies for the settle- 
ment of America, were of the same nature as the old 
feudal land grants at home in the several countries 
which made them. On the Hudson, more than else- 

7. Rogers: Work and Wages, pp. 326-27. 

"About the year 1000 benefices took the name of fiefs (feod), and 
the feudal organization was then complete. The servile or half- 
servile crowd, slaves of the Romans and Germans, the coloni of the first, 
the lidi of the second, either became servants of the lords or received 
lands from them on very humiliating conditions and were henceforth 
feudal serfs." — Maine: Ancient Law, p. 231. 

"Another element [of feudalism] was represented by the bene- 
ficium, which was partly of Roman, partly of German, origin. A 
practice had arisen in the empire of granting out frontier lands to 
soldiers upon condition of their rendering military service in border war- 
fare* * * This Roman custom naturally suggested to the Teutonic 
kings the plan of rewarding their followers out of their own estates 
with grants of land— benefices or fiefs, — with a special undertaking to Be 
faithful in consideration of the gift." — Taylor: Origin and Growth of 
the English Constitution, Vol. L, p. 223. 

"I believe, indeed, that under ordinary circumstances the means 
of life were more abundant during the Middle Ages than they are under 
our modern experience. There was, I am convinced, no extreme poverty." 
— Rogers: Economic Interpretation of History, p. 16. 

Kropotkin: Mutual Aid, Chapters V. and VI. 



Chap, VII SERFDOM 89 

where, the real feudal life was actually in force. There 
was complete dependence of the serf on his lord, in- 
cluding military service and the oath of allegiance to 
the landlord by his tenant. This feudalism was in 
form overthrown by the Eevolution. There were and 
are yet some survivals of this old feudalism still 
lingering in the Empire State. Her early control by 
the few great families along the Hudson; the appoint- 
ment of county officers by the state authorities— which 
was not abandoned until 1830— and the large tracts of 
land still held in entailed and rent gathering estates, 
are instances in point. 

Both slavery and serfdom in this country are inter- 
esting subjects for study, but neither were in the line 
of the regular development of modern industry. Serf- 
dom was an importation from Europe, and slavery was 
a recurrence to a method of production already out- 
grown in the regular line of advance. 

97. Slavery and Serfdom.— We will return to the 
study of slavery and serfdom in the places of their 
natural and historical development. The differences 
between slavery and serfdom are not easily stated, but 
the one which is of economic importance— and there- 
fore of importance to us— is that, historically, men 
first owned slaves, and the land in order to employ the 
slaves. Finally the discovery was made that if they 
owned the land, they did not need to own the slaves; 
and to extend to the slaves some portion of their 
rights, would add to their value as workers and would 
promote the propagation of more workers. The mas- 
ters had established themselves on estates and gath- 
ered their soldiers about them. The soldiers were free 
men, only it was desertion to withdraw from the mili- 
tary service of their lords. The workers were given 
the same kind of freedom— that is, they were per- 
mitted to say that they were no longer slaves, but they 



90 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

were forbidden to go from one place to another. They 
had belonged to the masters under slavery. They be- 
longed to the land and the land belonged to masters 
under serfdom.^ 

98, Vice, Cruelty and Greed.— It was discovered 
that there was no vice which slavery could gratify, 
which could not as well be served under serfdom. It 
was discovered that the earnings under serfdom were 
larger for the master than under slavery. It was dis- 
covered that the pride and arrogance of masters, which 
was the sole incentive for the perpetuation of unprofit- 
able slavery, could be better served by telling the vic- 
tim that he was no longer a slave. Then, by owning 
the sole means by which a worker could maintain his 
existence, they could continue to rob and corrupt the 
serf after the same old manner, and with larger re- 
turns for the master than slavery could afford. Serf- 
dom was but another form of slavery introduced by the 
masters and solely for the masters ' advantage. 

99. The Masters Make the Change to Serfdom.— 
The change from slavery to serfdom was not a victory 

8. "The political constitution of serfdom was profoundly differ- 
ent, as were also its economic antecedents. Physical control over the 
personality of the laborer was no longer compatible with the lower fer- 
tility of the soil. A more fecund social system was required, and 
therewith a milder method of suppressing the free land, in order to 
afford greater stability of conditions and to ameliorate the condition 
of the laborers. Subjection, it is true, increased in extent as a large 
number of freemen were now reduced to serfdom, or to a state bordering 
thereon; but it diminished, nevertheless, in intensity." — Loria: Eco- 
nomic Foundations of Society, p. 138. 

"The form of society immediately "^preceding the one with which 
we are familiar, that is to say, feudalism, recognized land as the basis 
of the social structure. Land was originally the only productive prop- 
erty known; and the significant fact for one who desires to appreciate 
the development of the property tax is that social duties, as well as 
social privileges, were in large part determined by the amount of land 
assigned, whether to the noble or to the serf. This was true of the in- 
ternal organization of the manors, where labor on the demesne was the 
'contribution' of the villain to the support of the state; it was also true 
of the national organization when the lords acknowledged their hold- 
ings by rendering military service. It thus appears that feudalism re- 
garded the holding of land as the measure of social service." — Adams: 
Finance, pp. 362-63. 



Chap. VII SERFDOM 91 

won by or for the slaves. It was a change effected by, 
and in the interest of the masters, and this is evident 
for the following reasons: 

100. Transition Most Obscure.— 1. It was made 
with so little stir that the historian cannot tell yon 
when nor how it happened. Every demand which is 
known to have been made by the slaves or serfs during 
all the years when slavery was shifting into serfdom 
and serfdom was shifting from one condition of de- 
pendence to another, was promptly met by repression 
the most cruel. It could not have been secured by the 
slaves as a victory in their interest. Adam Smith 
says of one of these changes in the form of serfdom: 
* ^ The time and manner in which so important a revolu- 
tion was brought about is one of the most obscure 
points in modern history.'' The whole personality of 
the slaves or serfs, for this period, was a blank. For a 
thousand years the only mention the old historians 
made of them was as playing minor parts in the vices 
and crimes of their lordly masters. If they had had 
the power to enforce so marked a change, they would 
have made trouble enough to have made the transition 
an event in history. If they could have caused this 
change, they could have made themselves felt in other 
ways so as not to have utterly disappeared from the 
world's notice while they were doing it. 

101. Slaves Could Not—Masters Did.-2. When 
slavery was established in the first place, those who 
were to be made slaves were fighting men— the equals 
of those who were struggling to become their masters. 
When serfdom was to succeed slavery, those who were 
to be made serfs were already slaves. They were ac- 
customed to all manner of cruelty and were helpless in 
the hands of their military masters. Whatever 
changes were made at all, were made by the only ones 
able to make them and in their own behalf. There 



92 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

never was a slave or serf, unless back of him stood a 
soldier. Whatever changes have taken place in the 
forms of industrial servitude, have taken place under 
the eye of the soldier and in behalf of the master 
classes. The slave or serf has had as his only choice 
to serve or die. He should have died,— sometimes he 
did. 

102.— Summary.— 1. When the extension of the 
Roman frontier was no longer possible, the conquest of 
new territory came to an end. Hence the capture of 
men in order to make them slaves also practically 
ended. Then workers had to be propagated instead of 
being captured, and the improvement in the lot of the 
slave which such propagation required was the prin- 
cipal cause of the change from slavery to serfdom. 

2. The conquest of smaller tribes by those which 
were larger and better organized for military pur- 
poses frequently resulted in the victorious military 
masters confirming the barbarian usages of the cap- 
tured tribes, as to land and labor, with the one condi- 
tion that the conquered people should render to their 
new masters such military service as they might de- 
mand. In most Teutonic and Celtic countries this was 
the beginning of serfdom. 

3. In the countries which had become civilized 
under the old Roman rule, serfdom was a modification 
of slavery. 

4. In the countries which had continued to be at 
war with Rome, serfdom was the result of the develop- 
ment of military power among themselves and was the 
form of dependent labor which was developed directly 
from inter-tribal barbarian war in these countries. 

5. The great advantages which the workers enjoyed 
at certain times in some countries, as in England, 
under serfdom, were survivals from barbarism, which 
survivals were then in the process of being destroyed. 



Chap. VII SERFDOM 93 

6. Wherever serfdom came into existence as a mod- 
ification of slavery it was by the choice of the masters 
and in their interest. 

7. Wherever serfdom came into existence as the re- 
sult of conquest it was established by force of arms, 
and in behalf of the new military masters. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. How were workers obtained under the old Roman rule? 

2. How were they obtained when war could no longer supply the 
feaptives ? 

3. In what different light did the masters and the workers regard 
the homes of the serfs? 

9 4. By what means did the new masters, who came into the con- 
trol of all Europe after the fall of Rome, provide for the support of 
their military establishments ? 

5. How did Thorold Rogers regard the lot of English workingmen 
in the fifteeenth century? 

6. Whence came these great advantages of English workers ? 

7. How did they lose them? What power was never granted them 
by their new military masters and for lack of which they lost these 
good conditions? 

8. What was the difference between slavery and serfdom ? 

9. By whom and in whose interest was the transition made from 
slavery to serfdom? 



CHAPTER VIII' 

THE WAGE SYSTEM 

103. Slavery, Serfdom and the Wage System.— In 
preceding chapters, we have noticed how war was fol- 
lowed by the enslavement of the captive, and the mak- 
ing of private property of the lands before held by 
those who were thus enslaved. It was seen that when it 
was discovered that both the vices and the greed of 
the master classes could be better served by serfdom 
than by slavery, the change to serfdom was effected by 
and in behalf of the master classes. The discovery 
was made that if the master owned the land and could 
forbid the serf from moving off from the land of his 
lord, he did not need to own the slave, and so he called 
a slave a serf, and himself a lord. In the same way 
it was afterward discovered that there was no vice 
which slavery or serfdom fostered which could not be 
as well gratified, while greed could be better served, 
under the wage system. If the lords and masters owned 
all the land and tools, the serf could be permitted to 
go, when not needed by the master, and come again, as 
he might choose, so long as he remained without where 
to employ his hands as well as without ^ ^ where to lay 
his head,'' except some lord or master should make 
terms with him. 

94 



Chap. VIII THE WAGE SYSTEM 95 

104. Industrial Discipline.— The wage system is 
characterized by one thing which was impossible un- 
der either slavery or serfdom, namely, the right to seek 
a new master; but curiously enough, this privilege of 
quitting the employ of one's lord or master, which the 
master classes refused under both slavery and serf- 
dom, has become, under the wage system, not only the 
right to go, on the part of the worker, but the power 
to discharge, on the part of the master; and this has 
become the most powerful means of industrial dis- 
cipline ever held in the hands of masters.^ 

105. The Struggle for Land Again.— It has been 
seen how, in the early time, the tribes trespassed on 
each other's territory, and how, finally, all tribes were 
obliged to become warring tribes, or become the slaves 
of their warring neighbors. This same thing happened 
in feudalism. No sooner had the warring chieftains 
secured themselves in their castles and possessions, 
than, if for no other reason, the natural growth of 
their establishments demanded more room. They had 
established themselves by fighting, and, as a matter 
of fact, fighting never ceased. K any particular lord 
had wished ''to avoid strife and to live peaceably with 
all men," he would not have been able to do so. He 
and his house would have gone at once to their own 

1. "Freemen indeed! You are slaves, not to masters of any 
strength or honor, but to the idlest talkers at that floral end of West- 
minster bridge [in Parliament]. Nay, to countless meaner masters than 
they. For though, indeed, as early as the year 1102, it was decreed in 
a council at St. Peter's, Westminster, *that no man for the future should 
presume to carry on the wicked trade of selling men in the mar- 
kets like brute beasts, which hitherto had been the common custom of 
England,' the no less wicked trade of under-selling men in markets has 
lasted to this day; producing conditions of slavery differing from the 
ancient ones only in being starved instead of full-fed ; and besides this, 
a state of slavery unheard of among the nations till now, has arisen 
with us. In all former slaveries — Egyptian, Algerian, Saxon, and 
American — the slave complaint has been of compulsory work. But the 
modern Politico-Economic slave is a new and far more injured species, 
condemned to compulsory idleness, for fear he should spoil other peo- 
ple's trade." — ^Rich: The Communism of John Ruskin, pp. 188-89. 



96 THE EVOLUTION OP CAPITALISM Part 11 

burials or into some other lord's service and so into 
serfdom. 

106. Expansion Inevitable.— As long as the practice 
of taking by force of arms, or by the power of the 
competitive market remains, the tribes, the armies and 
the markets must continually expand or destruction 
awaits the enterprise. Just as the expansion of the 
ancient tribes created the ancient nation, so the ex- 
pansion by the feudal lords of their holdings created 
the modern nations. Whenever a powerful chieftain, 
sallying forth from his own castle, had destroyed the 
castles and absorbed the holdings of his neighbors, 
covering territory so large that castles and warriors 
were required at many points in order to insure protec- 
tion, he would create from among his followers other 
lords, who would hold these new estates, but remain 
subject to their former master, and hold themselves 
and their fighting men forever in readiness to fight, not 
for themselves as independent lords but for their 
former master, now the lord of an ever widening realm. 
In the face of such a warrior, smaller lords would has- 
ten to declare allegiance to him, and to become his 
military subjects; not because they loved him, but be- 
cause they dared not fight the combination. 

107. Widening Peaceful Territory.— These subject 
lords were not permitted by their common master to 
fight each other, and hence, as war extended the terri- 
tory of such a chieftain, it ended war within his ter- 
ritory as long as he could maintain control. To keep 
control within his territory, as well as to extend his 
territory, made necessary the repair of the old roads 
and the construction of new ones. And so better roads 
and more of them connected the castles with each other, 
with the centers of power, and with the frontiers.^ 

108. Jealousies.— It will be readily seen that terri- 
tories brought together in such a way would be con- 

2. Macaulay: History of England, Vol. 1., Chapter 3. 



Chap. VIlI THE WAGE SYSTEM 9f; 

stantly subject to the combinations of the stronger 
lords to control the action of their master, while any 
misfortune which would befall the king would be taken 
advantage of by those having no regard for him, other 
than an allegiance based on fear. Jealousies, hatreds, 
rebellions and assassinations were ever rife and fre- 
quently scattered in an hour what had been patiently 
gathered in a lifetime or a century. 

109. Divine Right of Kings.— Besides their armies, 
the princes devised other means of extending and re- 
taining power. They invented the doctrine of ^ ^ divine 
right of kings," and against the rival and the rebel 
they reinforced all that their armies could do in this 
life, with all that everlasting torment could threaten 
for the next. In this way, when a local lord wished 
to rebel, he would be unable to hold his fighting men 
together, as against the king of the realm, who, it was 
believed, had power not only to kill the body in battle, 
but to torture the soul in hell. 

110. The Towns.— Another important item in this 
program of the kings was to recognize and encourage 
the towns. The local lords had uniformly treated the 
towns with contempt. The towns were quarreling 
with their local lords and the kings were trying to 
lessen the power of these lords in order to extend their 
own.^"^ 

The kings not only played the part of the ''big med- 
icine man, ' ' so far as the soldiers of all the lords were 
concerned, but they were ready to form alliances with 
the despised tradesmen of the towns as weir as with the 
horrors of the under world in order the better to con- 
trol their subject lords. 

3. "The princes who lived upon the worst terms with their barons 
seem accordingly to have been the most liberal in grants of this kind 
to their burghs. King John of England, for example, appears to have 
been a most munificent benefactor to the towns." — Adam Smith: Wealth 
of Nations, Book III., Chapter 3. The whole chapter is given to the snt>- 
ject and is full of interest. 



98 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

111. Better Roads, More Trade.— The extension of 
territory and the creation of roads, together with the 
extension of conditions of peace, established commerce 
on a much larger scale than had been possible before, 
while the extension of territory involved the gathering 
of large armies and corresponding demands for larger 
supplies at points distant from the castles, and hence, 
difficult to provide. 

112. Robber Barons.— In the earlier periods of feu- 
dalism the towns had been neglected. They had been 
occupied by tradesmen, who had been despised, who 
had carried about their goods for sale much after the 
manner of a modern peddler.^ These peddlers, how- 
ever, were the predecessors of the great commercial 
princes of our own times. Then they were subject to 
all manner of taxes and tariffs, collected by the lords 
for the privilege of selling goods on the several petty 
territories which the lords controlled.^ They were not 
only taxed at the castles, but they were robbed on the 
roads. Among the titles which those old lords be- 
stowed upon themselves, as indicating the things which 
they regarded as honorable, and of which their de- 
scendants are still boasting, was the name of ** robber 
barons."^ 

113. Free Cities.— It was an easy thing for the kings 
to secure alliances with these industrial towns. They 

4. Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations, Book III., Chapter 3. 

5. "In the preceding sections an attempt has been made to show 
how the rising power of capitalism broke down the mediaeval forms of 
commercial and industrial regulation; the capitalists, who could not 
dominate them, migrated to places where they were free from old-fash- 
ioned restrictions." — Cunningham: The Cambridge Modern History, p. 
514 (Chapter on "Economic Change"). 

6. "Money is now exactly what mountain promontories over public 
roads were in old times. The barons fought for them fairly: — ^the 
strongest and cunningest got them; then fortified them, and made every 
one who passed below pay toll. Well, capital now is exactly what crags 
were then. Men fight fairly (we will, at least, grant so much, though 
it is more than we ought), for their money, but having once gotten it, 
the fortified millionaire can make everybody who passes below pay toll 



Chap. VIII THE WAGE SYSTEM 99 

were chartered in great numbers. They were made in- 
dependent of their local lords. They were permitted to 
become self-governing democracies. They were made 
up of bodies of tradesmen, and these trade organiza- 
tions were directly recognized, chartered and made the 
ruling bodies of the new cities. They were permitted 
to gather from their own citizens and by their own 
officers, the revenues which would fall to the kings, 
and so were freed from the presence and the conse- 
quent wrongs of the royal tax gatherers, and were 
therefore called free cities."^ 

114. The Modern City.— As the centuries passed and 
the roads were improved, the armies enlarged and the 
travel and transportation made secure from the robber 
lords, the trade of the cities was vastly increased. The 
kings came to depend on them for the supplies of their 
armies, and just as the military camp and the slave 
camp had together made the ancient cities possible, so 
the armies that opened and made safe the roads and 
the workers devoted to their support,— both these 
groups gave the final impetus which built the modern 
city. 

115. The Growing Market.— The support which had 
been provided at the castles for the small groups of 
fighting men which had been attached to the castles, 
not only grew in importance with the growth of the 
armies, but the production of this support was trans- 
ferred to the towns. The towns became the producers, 
not only for the armies, but for a general market, which 
has continuously increased from this beginning until 
it has grown to be the world market of our own 
times. 

to his million and build another tower to his money castle. And I can 
tell you, the poor vagrants by the roadside suffer now quite as much 
from the bag-baron as ever they did from the crag-baron. 'Bags and 
crags have much the same result on rags'." — John Ruskin : "A Crown of 
Wild Olives," p. 29. See also Macaulay: History of England, Vol. I., 
Chapter 3. 

7. Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations, p. 305. 



100 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM PaetU 

116. Gunpowder.— This movement was greatly in- 
tensified and quickened by the invention of gunpow- 
der.^ The appearance of gunpowder as a factor in war 
marked the disappearance of the castle as the seat of 
power and of the mounted knight as the most effective 
soldier. Cannon tore away the castle walls and no 
knight could safely fix his lance to run a tournament 
with a flying bullet.^ 

117. Worthless Castles— The Kings' Soldiers.— The 
result was that the kings organized armies equipped 
with muskets, and answerable directly to the kings 
themselves, without the intervention of lords or castles. 
The military establishments of the feudal lords be- 
came useless as fortresses and were at last abandoned 
for that purpose to become the ^* country seats'' of 
those who before had been independent fighting men, 
but under the new order became courtiers at the king's 
court. Large numbers of men, who had before been 
the fighting men of the castles, and a larger number, 
who had been the working men about the castles, to 
provide the support of the fighting men, became alike 
useless to their lords. The lords were unable to pro- 
vide any employment by means of which they could 
make the further service of these serfs worth having. 

118. Discharged Soldiers and Evicted Serfs.— Both 
the soldiers and the workers were permitted to desert 
the lords in great numbers, but in going they were un- 
able to take the means of making a living with them. 
The cities, which had destroyed the industrial and mil- 
itary importance of the castles, now absorbed this 
needless surplus population from the feudal estates. 

8. Buckle: History of Civilization, VoL I., pp. 259-272. 

9. "The first discovery mentioned, that of gunpowder * * * 
has produced a political revolution parallel to the intellectual revolu- 
tion mentioned. The roar of the cannon and the sharp crack of the 
viusket gave a fatal shock to the old political methods, for they revo- 
lutionized the art of war."~Morris: Civilization — an Historical Re 
dew, Vol. 11., pp. 11-12. 



Chap. VIII ; THE WAGE SYSTEM - 101 

They came to the cities utterly helpless, without tools, 
and without the means to live at all, except on the 
terms their new masters should offer them.^^ 

119. The Wage System.— This was the beginning 
of the wage system as the dominant method of produc- 
tion. Wages had been paid before.^ ^ Wages had been 
paid to those not slaves, when slavery was the dom- 
inant method of production. Wages had been paid to 
those not serfs when serfdom was the dominant method 
of production. In the olden time, wages and slavery 
had existed side by side, and slaverv had held its 
ground as the usual method of production by the in- 
terference of the law to extend slavery when the wage 
worker was found to be more profitable to the master. 
In the same way, for a thousand years, serfdom and 
the wage system existed together, but serfdom was 
the ruling method of production, because production 
at the castles was of the nature of a personal service, 
and serfdom involved the personal subjection of the 
worker to his one master. 

10. "In the decrease of personal service, as villainage died away, 
it became the interest of the lord to diminish the number of tenants on 
his estate as it had been his interest before to maintain it, and he did 
this by massing the small allotments together into larger holdings. By 
this course of eviction the number of the free labor class was enormously 
increased, while the area of employment was diminished; and the social 
danger from vagabondage and the 'sturdy beggar' grew every day great- 
er." — Green; History of the English People, p. 272; see also Thorold 
Rogers: Work and Wages, Chapter 4. (By sturdy beggars the historian 
here moans a class which at the very beginning of the wage system in 
England closely resembled the modern tramp, b )th in his general con- 
dition and in the causes which put him into that condition.) 

11. *The citizen farmer of Beocia in the seventh century before 
Christ, appears to have required one ox and one slave as the minimum 
stock on his land; on better stocked farms hired labor was employed, 
both male and female, * * * It has been pointed out above that money 
economy had been so far introduced in Athens as to affect the relations 
betv/een employers anr' employee d. A great part of the laboring popula- 
tion of Athens consistt^d oi wage-earners who had attained economic 
freedom. Some were citizens, who had political privileges, and others 
were aliens. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that because 
there was so much scope for the employment of free labor, slavery was 
either limited or exceptional. There was a sufficient number of free la- 
borers to affect the political life of the city strongly, but there was 



102 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

120, The Class War.— But new conditions had 
arisen. The subjection of ^individuals of the working 
class to certain individuals of the ruling class was 
succeeded by the subjection of the whole class of work- 
ers to the whole class of employers. For the first time 
in all the life of the race, great companies of workers 
were set to bidding against each other for a chance to 
live. The wage worker, who was a free man under 
serfdom and under slavery, always had the alternative 
of giving himself into serfdom or slavery, as a last 
chance as against the labor market. But now the bid- 
ding against each other no longer had the limit of the 
rewards of the serf or the fare of the slave, below 
which the wage workers would not be likely to go for 
any long period. The only limit now was death by 
starvation and exposure. Under slavery or serfdom, 
the economic law of the free workers ' wages would be 
that they would tend to the point which would equal 
the provision made for the support of the serf or the 
slave. But when the wage system came in as the dom- 
inant method of production, this bottom limit was 
taken away, and the economists discovered, and began 
to defend, the ^4ron law of wages,'' namely, that 
*^ wages tend to the lowest point at which the laborers 
will submit in numbers large enough to do the re- 
quired work.'' If they had added that the free wage 
earners were uniformly given the opportunity to sub- 
in addition a large number of laborers who were not in any sense eco- 
nomically free, and still less politically. 

"The slaves were for the most part found in the rural districts, 
though a certain amount of free labor found employment on the lands; 
still the estates of the Athenian gentry were for the most part culti- 
vated by slave labor. * * * Taken altogether the number of slaves 
was very large; it was maintained by importation, chiefly from the 
shores of the Black Sea, though piracy contributed its quota. Prisoners 
taken in war, and citizens who had fallen into poverty or crime, might 
all be reduced to this unenviable condition. There was no Greek who 
was free from the shadow of possible slavery as a fate he might incur 
without fault of his own." — Cunningham: Western Civilization — An- 
cient Times, pp. 81, 108-110. 



Chap. VIII THE WAGE SYSTEM 103 

mit to what was offered or starve, at the time wage 
labor became the dominant method of industrial pro- 
duction, then they would have stated the whole case.^^ 
121. Peddlers, Merchants and Helpless Workers.— 
New conditions had arisen. The mediaeval peddlers 
had become the manufacturers and merchants. For two 
hundred years, all the strife of European history was 
between these new masters of the towns and the old 
masters of the castles.^^ But in all this strife the toilers 

12. "The economic structure of capitalistic society has grown out 
of the economic structure of feudal society. The dissolution of the lat- 
ter set free the elements of the former. 

"The immediate producer, the laborer, could only dispose of his own 
person after he has ceased to be attached to the soil and ceased to be 
a slave-serf, or bondman of another. To become a free seller of labor- 
power, who carries his commodity wherever he finds a market, he must 
further have escaped from the regime of the guilds, their rules for ap- 
prentices and journeymen, and the impediments of their labor regula- 
tions. Hence the historical movement which changes the producers into 
wage-workers, appears, on the one hand, as their emancipation from 
serfdom and from the fetters of the guilds, and this side alone, exists 
for our boui'geois historians. But, on the other hand, these new freed- 
men became sellers of themselves only after they had been robbed of all 
their own means of production, and of all the guarantees of existence 
afforded by the old feudal arrangements. And the history of this, their 
expropriation, is written in the annals of mankind in letters of blood 
and fire. 

"The industrial capitalists, these new potentates, had on their 
part not only to displace the guild masters of handicrafts, but also 
the feudal lords, the possessors of the sources of wealth. In this re- 
spect their conquest of social power appears as the fruit of a victorious 
struggle both against feudal lordship and its revolting prerogatives, 
and against the guilds and the fetters they laid on the free development 
of production and the free exploitation of man by man. The chevaliers 
d'industrie, however, only succeeded in supplanting the chevaliers of 
the sword by making use of events of which they themselves were wholly 
innocent. They have risen by means as vile as those by which the Roman 
freedman once on a time made himself the master of his patronus. 

"The starting-point of the development that gave rise to the wage- 
laborer as well as to the capitalist, was the servitude of the laborer. 
The advance consisted in a change of form of this servitude, in the 
transformation of feudal exploitation into capitalist exploitation. To 
understand its march, we need not go back very far. Although we come 
across the first beginning of capitalist production as early as the four- 
teenth or fifteenth century, sporadically, in certain towns of the Med- 
iterranean, the capitalistic era dates from the sixteenth century. Wher- 
ever it appears, the abolition of serfdom has been long effected, and the 
highest development of the middle ages, the existence of sovereign towns. 
has been long on the wane." — ^]\Iarx: Capital, pp. 738-39. 

13. "When Europe emerged from the Middle Ages, the rising mid- 
dle-class of the towns constituted its revolutionary element. It had 



104 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Pabt 11 

in the fields which lay about the castles and the toilers 
of the factory towns, had no share or benefit. ^^ The 
free wage earners were forbidden by law to refuse to 
work for whatever they were offered. The free wage 
earners were forbidden by law to organize, or in any 
way to seek together for an advance of wages. The 
free wage earners were forbidden by law to go from one 
town to another in qnest of work, unless able to give 
bonds not to become a public charge. The free wage 
earners were forbidden by law to work at their own 
trades unless employed by those who held monopolies, 
granted by the kings. The free wage earners were 
flogged, im^prisoned, transported, or hanged for the 
slightest offenses against the prejudice or the inter- 
ests of their empioyers.^^ 

122. New Countries.— New conditions had arisen. 
America had been discovered, and a route to India, by 
way of Cape Good Hope, had been found out, and the 
world's commerce was making its beginning. Sailors 
were wanted. And free working men were kidnaped 
on the streets, dragged on board the vessels and hanged 
for mutiny, according to law, if they refused the tasks 
and the rations offered them. 

123. Printing— The Industrial Revolt Against the 
Church.— New conditions had arisen. Printing had 

conquered a recognized position within mediaeval feudal organization, 
but this position, also, had become too narrow for its expansive power. 
The development of the middle-class, the bourgeoisie, became incom- 
patible with the maintenance of the feudal system; the feudal system, 
therefore, had to fall." — Engels: Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, In- 
troduction, p. 19. 

14. ''The eager spirits who crowded into the House of Commons, 
the mounted yeomen who rode with Hampden, the men who fought and 
won at Marston Moor and Nasby, thought no more of the peasant and 
the workman, had no more care for the bettering him, than the Irish Pa- 
triots of 1782 cared for the kernes and cottiers on whose labors they 
lived. For in the midst of this battle of giants, * * * the English 
people who lived by wages were sinking lower and lower, and fast taking 
their place '"' * * as the beggarly hewers and drawers of prosper- 
ous and progressive England." — Thorold Rogers: Work and Wages, 
p. 97. 

15. Green : History of the English People, pp. 259-27^. 



Chap. VIII THE WAGE SYSTEM 105 

been invented and the towns had learned to fight with 
printers ' ink, and what before had been a war of spears 
and bullets became a war of printed as well as of 
spoken words. The princes who had most used the 
claim of the divine right of kings had secured the sanc- 
tion of the Church to their pretensions, but the Church 
had learned its power and had refused to give * * divine" 
credentials to princes whose conduct it could not con- 
trol. The disowned princes and rebellious towns or- 
ganized new churches of their own and the new 
churches became the defenders of the new towns and 
the champions of the new industrial gospel: '*Go ye 
unto all nations and trade with them." 

124. Commerce.— The wage system had come, and 
under it the workers were producing more than slaves 
had produced, but were receiving less than had been 
given slaves. The world commerce had made its be- 
ginning—the modern factory was still in its infancy, 
and war between the new employers and the old lords 
was at its height. 

125. Political Economy and the Factory Towns.— 
Political economy was made a science by itself. The 
subjects it discussed were the topics in controversy 
between the towns and the castles, and the positions 
taken by the economists were uniformly on the side 
of the towns. The towns wanted free trade. So did 
the economists. The towns wanted free labor, with 
no interference by the state and no scourge but hunger 
to drive the laborer to his task, and no limit but his 
endurance, either in the direction of a long day or a 
short ration. So did the economists. The towns want- 
ed usury laws abolished and capital free to make its 
own bargains. So did the economists. The towns in- 
sisted that their way of doing things was the only 
way— was the natural way. With the towns, nothing 
was so sacred as a bargain. They made no pretensions 



106 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

of claiming the divine right of the towns. They were 
sure they would be safely defended if they could trace 
their authority to a bargain. They gave the outlines 
of an impossible contract, made by an impossible com- 
pany of original contractors, and named it the * ^ Social 
Compact. ' ' They made the subject matter, about which 
these impossible ' ^ high ' ^ contracting parties were mak- 
ing their bargains, what they termed man's ^^ natural 
rights, ' ' and curiously enough, they found these rights 
and this compact to justify exactly what the towns 
were doing and what the economists were contending 
for.i^ 

126. Wage System Came by Choice of the Masters. 
—The wage system succeeded serfdom and slavery, not 
as a victory won by the workers, but as a change made 
by the masters, and because the wage system was 
found to be more profitable to the masters than either 
serfdom or slavery. This is known to have been the 
case, for the following reasons : 

127. Workers Were Helpless.— 1. The workers had 
no power to compel such a change. Every effort which 
they made for improvement was mercilessly punished 



16. Professor Richard T. Ely says, in his "Political Economy," p. 
312, that "the most fruitful sources of economic enquiry" are themselves 
modern, and he so explains the absence of any separate science of econ- 
omy until after the important financial operations of governments and 
questions concerning labor had made their appearance. John Stuart Mill 
declares in the first sentence in his "Political Economy" that in "any 
department of human affairs, practice long precedes science: systematic 
enquiry into the modes of the powers of nature is a tardy product of a 
long course of efforts to use these powers for practical ends." 

In these two utterances from these two representative men, Mr. Ely 
of the modern school, and Mr. Mill of the classical school of political 
economy, we have the statement of an important truth. Prof. Ely ad- 
mits that political economy had no occasion to be "separated out of a 
large whole and constructed into a separate science" until "government 
financial transactions and questions concerning labor" had become mat- 
ters of importance. Mr. Mill offers a philosophical explanation of this 
circumstance. The science of political economy was practiced before it 
was taught. It was practiced by the rising factory towns and was 
taught in the interest of the rising "middle-class." 



Chap. VIII THE WAGE SYSTEM 107 

by both sides of the controversy between the towns 
and the castles. Luther encouraged a war for the 
slaughter of peasants, which finally killed not less than 
a hundred thousand of those who had been his own fol- 
lowers.^^ Cromwell acted after the same manner.^^ All 
of the old warfare for liberty was controlled by the 
employers and merchants of the new manufacturing 
towns, as against the lords of the old system. The 
peasants and factory toilers had no share in them, ex- 
cept as they were used to fight other men's battles for 
them. 

128. Could Have Had Slaves.— 2. The new indus- 
try could have been equipped with serfs for laborers. 
Slaves could have been obtained. The employers ac- 
cepted wage workers instead of serfs or slaves in en- 
terprises in which they insisted that the only motive 
was business for profits. Therefore, wage labor must 
have been more profitable, or it would not have been 
chosen. 

129. A Long Evolution.— 3. The line of advance 
by which the wage system came into existence began 
with inter-tribal wars, and in the line of mastery it 
was warrior, victor, master, lord and at last employer; 
while in the line of subjection it was warrior, captive, 
slave, serf and at last the employed. The wage sys- 
tem is simply the last step in this long class struggle, 
and is the last and final form of mastery and servitude. 
It had no other beginning than war and has no other 
foundation than force. Each step has been taken by 
the wish of the masters and the conditions of each 
form of servitude have been enforced by the power of 

17. "No mercy, no toleration is due to the peasants; on them 
should fall the wrath of God and of man." * * * They should "be 
treated as mad dogs." — Martin Luther, quoted from his life, written by 
himself, p. 184. 

18. Church; Life of Oliver Cromwell, p. 328. 



108 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM PabtII 

the soldier, and the soldier still guards the shop and 
mine to enforce conditions to which the workers would 
not otherwise submit. 

130. Summary.— 1. The establishment of the wage 
system was simply the denial to the workers of any 
rights they may have had, either as slaves or serfs. 

2. The wage system finally succeeded both slavery 
and serfdom, because more profitable for the masters. 

3. The beginning of the wage system was simply 
the beginning of the exercise of the right of discharge 
by the masters. 

4. The right to quit work on the part of the work- 
ers was not granted at the beginning of the wage sys- 
tem, and is still a subject of public controversy. 

5. The right of discharge has become the most pow- 
erful means of industrial discipline ever held in the 
hands of the masters. 

6. All of the strife of all of the years of controversy 
between the old militarism of the castles and the new 
commercialism of the towns was not in behalf of the 
workers, but was simply a struggle between two classes 
of masters to determine which should exploit the 
workers. 

7. The old aristocracy lost and the bargain-making 
class won in this fight, because of economic causes, for 
instance,— 1st, the culmination of the old system and 
the impossibility of its further development after it 
had brought into existence the modem nations. 2nd, the 
discovery of new countries. 3rd, the development of 
foreign trade. 4th, the invention of gunpowder, and 
of printing, and the overstocking of the feudal estates 
with more workers than could be profitably employed, 
especially after the invention of gunpowder, and the 
collapse of the old military system. 



Chap. VIII THE WAGE SYSTEM 109 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Trace the steps by which victorious warriors and their succes- 
sors became employers and the steps by which those captured in war 
and their successors became wage-workers. 

2. What was the one thing which was always forbidden under 
slavery and serfdom and has now become, in the hands of employers, the 
most terrible means of industrial discipline? 

3. By what process were the modern nations developed and how 
does it compare with the process by which the ancient nations were 
developed ? 

4. How did conditions of peace come to be established over large 
territories ? 

5. What effect did this have on the production of wealth? 

6. What effect did the great increase of production for the market 
have on the castles and the towns? 

7. Why did the kings encourage the towns? What powers did 
they grant to the towns? 

8. What effect did the invelition of gunpowder have on the increase 
in the number of wage workers? Why? 

9. How was the claim of the divine right of kings used to extend 
their power? How was it finally used against the kings? What did 
the kings and the towns do when the power of the church was used 
against them? 

10. What was the condition as to ability to live without depend- 
ence on others of those who were denied their former rights under 
serfdom and became wage workers in large numbers? 

11. Name some of the things contended for by the towns and 
afterward taught by the political economist. 

12. On whose behalf was serfdom abandoned for the wage system 
v.nd why? Give proofs. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ERA OF INVENTION AND THE INDUSTRIAL 
REVOLUTION 

131. Slaves, Lands, Tools.— The preceding chapters 
have shown how war created slavery, how war enforced 
the private appropriation of both land and slaves, how 
the master classes have shifted the manner of employ- 
ing the disinherited and dependent laborers from a 
condition of slavery, first to serfdom, and then to the 
wage system, that is, modern capitalism, and, hence, 
how capitalism has had its origin. Under slavery both 
the land and the workers were made the private prop- 
erty of the masters as the only known means by which 
the workers ' products could be taken away from them. 
Under serfdom the land was held as private property 
of the masters, but the workers were given their par- 
tial liberty, the masters depending on their private 
ownership of the land as the principal means by which 
the workers' products could be taken away from them. 
Under modern capitalism the pretension is that the 
masters have given full personal liberty to the work- 
ers to come and to go as they choose. They depend 
wholly on the private ownership of both land and tools 
as the means of taking away from the workers the 
products of their labor. • 

110 



Chap. IX THE ERA OF INVENTION 111 

132. The Earth Not Restored.— The natural occu- 
pancy and free use of the earth, which was lost by the 
conquered tribes, as the result of barbarian wars which 
made them slaves, was not restored to the workers 
under serfdom, nor has it been restored to them under 
modern capitalism. The tools of industry were still 
simple and inexpensive at the beginning of modern 
capitalism. Owning the means of production, includ- 
ing both the natural resources and the tools of indus- 
try, the capitalists held in their own hands the man- 
agement of industry and appropriated to their own 
benefit the total products of industry, giving to the 
workers only such wages as would maintain their ef- 
ficiency, just as they gave to their machines the oil 
necessary to reduce friction and save the waste of wear. 
While all this was true at the beginning of capitalism, 
modern capitalism could not have been what it is at all, 
had it not been for the wonderful development of mod- 
ern machinery. 

133. Arrested Growth.— Throughout the primitive 
life of the race, each step in advance was the result 
of some improvement in the means whereby the race 
provided for its own existence. At the close of this 
primitive period and at the beginning of civilization, 
the simple tools of production had been developed to a 
point beyond which no important improvement was 
made during the whole period of civilization until very 
recent years. 

134. Slavery and Inventions.— The introduction of 
slavery seems to have stopped the process of invention 
and improvement in the tools of industry.^ Under 
slavery, if the worker improved his tools, no benefit 
could come to him, and the masters, having no share 
in doing the work, found it easier to use the lash or 
increase the number of their slaves than to take the 

1. "The history of man is the history of arrested growth." — Em- 
erson: Natural History of the Intellect. 



112 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

pains to improve the tools, even if they had had the 
ability to develop the tools of industry while they were 
themselves devoted to the use of the weapons of war. 

135. Militarism and Politics.— Throughout slavery 
and serfdom the world's advance was marked, not by 
the introduction of new tools, but chiefly by changes in 
the organization of labor and of governments which' 
were military, both in the form of their organization 
and in the purpose of their existence. The world's pro- 
gress for five thousand years was not in the line of 
improving the implements of industry, but by conquer- 
ing small tribal organizations and establishing other 
larger organizations in their stead, which are now 
growing into a world-wide political power, doing police 
duty for a world-wide industrial and commercial life. 
This task of conquest was first undertaken when the 
early tribes had outgrown their boundaries. It was 
carried on for long centuries with no knowledge on the 
part of the actors as to the final economic effects of 
the conflicts in which they were engaged. 

136. Culmination of Growth of Tools, Organization 
and Conquest,— In the present struggle, there is a cul- 
mination of both the development of organizations of 
men and of the great improvement of the tools of in- 
dustry. At last the control of this world-life on an 
industrial and commercial basis is the known cause of 
the conscious and purposeful struggle of all the na- 
tions of the world. The methods of organization under 
which labor is employed and the tools with which its 
efforts are made productive, combine together to usher 
in this last new era. The present forms of industrial 
organization of both laborers and capitalists are the 
culmination of the wa^e system; this system, we have 
seen, was the outgrowth of both slavery and serfdom. 
It still maintains conditions under which those who 
toil are dependent for the opportunity to do so, upon 
thtof^e whb ettei th'emsBlves not workers, nor are th'dy so 



Chap. IX THE ERA OF INVENTION 113 

vitally interested in the continuance and effectiveness 
of industry as are the workers. 

137. Machinery.— The development of machinery, 
under which productive ability is greatly increased, 
has come to its present effectiveness, together with the 
culmination of tlie world's conquest and the culmina- 
tion of the forms of industrial organization. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to take up the im- 
provement of tools at the place where it was dropped 
at the close of the fourth chapter, and to point out the 
conditions under which the invention and improvement 
in the tools of industry have been renewed, and to show 
the relation of this great industrial improvement to 
the development of the forms of the organization of 
industry. 

138. The Free Cities, the American Frontier and In- 
ventions.— In the eighth chapter attention was called 
to the free cities of northern Europe and to the revival 
of industry under the free, self-employing laborers who 
created those cities; once more, after a lapse of five 
thousand years, these new cities gave to the individual 
worker a direct interest in the effectiveness of the tools 
of his own industry. The improvement which had sud- 
denly ceased with tlie beginning of slavery was here 
renewed with the renewal of self-employment. The 
revival of inventions extended to America, for wher- 
ever self -employment went, there the genius of the in- 
ventor once more sprang into activity, and the im- 
provement of tools became again a great factor in 
the growth of the race life. 

139. Industrial Occupation and Inventions.— But 
the revival of inventions was under conditions not in 
existence under barbarism. The struggle for existen'ce 
had become distinctly an industrial struggle. Industry 
was no longer the work of women only and the indus- 
trial employments were not now. supplemented by the 
hunters or the fishJefrm^n, not feVeu by the ^pbll^ 6i 



114 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

war as a regular dependence, in the struggle for the 
means of life. For the military had not only ceased to 
be in any way a source of income to the state, but had 
become instead a direct burden on the industrial 
classes. In fact, the work of the soldiers becomes more 
and more, not so much to conquer other countries in 
order to enrich their own countries, as to police the in- 
dustrial workers and enforce submission to the dictates 
of their capitalistic masters.^ 

AH workers of both sexes were now industrial work- 
ers, many of them with a direct interest in the value 
of their own products. And the old, rude tools handed 
down from barbarism, and across the whole period of 



2. ''The economic disturbances since 1873 contingent on war ex- 
penditures are not different in kind from those of former periods, but 
much greater in degree. This subject has been so thoroughly investi- 
gated and is so well understood that nothing more need be said in 
this connection than to point out that men in actual service at the 
prestmt time in the armies and navies of Europe are in excess of 
4,000,000, or about one to every fifteen of all the men of arms-bearing 
age — all consumers and no producers. The number of men in reserve 
who are armed, subject to drill, and held ready for service at any 
moment, is about 14,250,000 in addition. Including the reserves, the 
present standing armies and navies of Europe require the services of 
one in every five of the men of arms-bearing age, or one in every 
twenty-four of the whole population. It is also estimated that it re- 
quires the constant product of one peasant engaged in agriculture, or 
of one operative engaged in manufacturing in the commercial and man- 
ufacturing states of Europe, to equip and sustain one soldier; that 
it requires the labor of one man to be diverted from every two hundred 
acres; and that a sum equivalent to $1.10 shall be deducted from the 
annual product of every acre. The present aggregate annual expendi- 
ture of Europe for military and naval purposes is probably in excess 
of a thousand million dollars. We express this expenditure in terms 
of money, but it means work performed; not that abundance of useful 
and desirable things may be increased, but decreased; not that toil 
may be lightened, but augmented. 

"As to the ultimate outcome of this state of affairs — ostensibly 
kept up for the propagation or promotion of civilization — there is an 
almost perfect agreement of opinion among those who have studied 
it;* and that is, that the existence and continuance of the present mil- 
itary system of Continental Europe is impoverishing its people, im- 
pairing their industrial strength, effectually hindering progress, driv- 
ing the most promising men out of the several states to seek peaceful 
homes in foreign countries, and ultimately threatening the destruction 
of the whole fabric of society/'— Wells: Recent Econogiie Changes, pp. 
322-23. 



Chap. IX THE ERA OF INVENTION 115 

slavery and serfdom, rapidly grew into machines in- 
stead of tools.^ 

140. Tools and Machines.— The difference between 
a machine and a tool has been the subject of some dis- 
cussion, but the real importance of this question is not 
so much in the technical or mechanical descriptions of 
tools or machines, as in the economic consequences of 
the development of the machines and their general use 
in production. 

There are four such important differences between 
tools and machines, (i) The tools were cheap, any- 
body could own them. The machines are expensive, 
only the joint savings of many workers or the holders 
of great inherited properties can possess them. (2) 
The tools were simple, anybody could use them single- 
handed and alone. The machines are large and com- 
plicated, and require the joint labor of many. (3) The 
tools with single-handed industry were not produc- 
tive enough to yield a product much beyond the needs 
of the worker's family, and hence their use did not fun- 
damentally depend on a public market^ for the goods 
produced, but instead, principally, on a private need 

3. "An instrument of labor is a thing, or a complex of things, 
which the laborer interposes between himself and the subject of his 
labor, and which serves as the conductor of his activity. 

"He makes use of the mechanical, physical and chemical prop- 
erties of some substances in order to make other substances subser- 
vient to his aims. * * * Thus nature becomes one of the organs 
of his activity, one that he annexes to his own bodily organs, adding 
stature to himself. * * * As the earth is his original larder, so 
too, it is his original tool house. It supplies him, for instance, with 
stones for throwing, grinding, pressing, cutting, etc. The earth itself 
is an instrument of labor." — Marx: Capital, p. 158. 

4. "We must now descend from the consideration of the Industry 
and the Market, or group of related businesses, to examine the char- 
acter and structure of the unit of industry — the Business. 

"In a study of the composition or co-operation of labor and capital 
in a Business before the era of machine -production there are five points 
of dominant importance — (1) the ownership of the material; (2) the 
ownership of the tools; (3) the ownership of the productive power; 
(4) the relations subsisting between the individual units of labor; (5) 
the work-place." — ^Hobson: The Evolution of Modern Capitalism, pp. 
34-35. 



116 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

for their use. The producer was also the consumer. 
But the machine produces goods on so large a scale that 
the wide market is an indispensable condition of the 
use of the machine.^ And (4) each industry carried on 
with hand tools completed its own products, but the 
introduction of machinery involves the establishment 
of great industries whose finished product becomes the 
raw material of other producers, and so the natural, 
untouched, raw materials go through the hands of 
many manufacturers on their way from a state of na- 
ture to the finished product. And hence the machine 
involves the manufacturers in relations of great mutual 
dependence on each other. This last item is made par- 
ticularly clear in the matter of the great improvements 
in the methods of transportation. Here, then, is the 
gist of the economic consequences of the transition 
from the use of simple tools to the use of the great mod- 
ern machines. The ownership and use of the simple 
tools and the consumption of the products were all 
mainly an individual matter, and the interdependent 
relations of manufacturers were not usually of a serious 
nature. In the case of the machines, joint ownership, 
joint use, the public market, and relations of great mu- 
tual dependence of the different enterprises on each 
other, are all inevitable. 

141. The Industrial Revolution.— Now notice some 
of the consequences of this transition. The introduc- 
tion of modern capitalism left the capitalist in control 
of the means of production, but at the beginning of 
modern capitalism, the tools were so simple and so in- 
expensive that self-employing and self-supporting la- 
bor was still possible. Using the old simple tools, the 
worker could equip himself out of savings from his 
wages and then employ his own labor, and in that way 
escape from the exploitation of the employer. 

5. "The agricultural and otftifer iriachinery in this country is equiv- 
alent to the combinjed eWort of a ptlp'u'Mldil of oVer 4b0,D0Cl,t)(ra.*'*-- 
Tife Trust: m W(^ki p. 6. 



Chap, IX THE ERA OF INVENTION 117 

Here is the core and essence of the Industrial Revo- 
lution, resulting from the introduction of modern ma- 
chinery;^— Personal independence was the most 
marked characteristic of the old hand producer. Mu- 
tual inter-dependence is inevitable under machine pro- 
duction. The helpless personal dependence of the man 
without machines on the man with machines is in- 
evitable so long as machine production is carried on 
under capitalism. Hence it is seen that the develop- 
ment of the machines made production a social mat- 



6. "The chief material factor in the evolution of Capitalism is 
machinery." — Hobson: The Evolution of Modern Capitalism, p. 5. 

« * * * Yor all authorities agree that the 'industrial revolu- 
tion/ the event which has divided the nineteenth century from all 
antecedent time, began with the year 1760." — ^Adams: Law of Civil- 
ization and Decay, p. 313. 

"A girl with a sewing machine can do the work of twelve men, 
but on aggregating the labor expended in making a sewing machine 
ve find that one machine embodies a man's work for four and a half 
days."— Macrosty: Trusts and the State, pp. 120-21. 

"The starting point and common impulse from which these various 
streams of evolution preceded was the invention within a space of 
a few years during the last quarter of the eighteenth century of a 
number of machines which entirely revolutionized the old methods of 
industry, and which have been the means of introducing into the states- 
manship of the nineteenth century problems unknown in the world be- 
fore. 

"These machines were the spinning- jenny of Hargreave, the water- 
frame of Arkwright, the mules of Crompton and Kelly, the power-loom 
of Cartwright, and last and not least important, the steam engine 
with its common application to all industries alike. Previous to this, 
the occupations of spinning and weaving, of cutlery and hardware 
manufacture, had been carried on under what had been called the 
'domestic system,' that is to say, in farmhouses and in the dwellings 
of the thousands of small free holders who still remained unswallowed 
by the large proprietors, but mainly in the numberless little homesteads 
rented for the purpose and situate in the fields surrounding the great 
centers of industry. In these latter, little pasture farms originally 
of from two to ten acres, all the processes of spinning and weaving, 
and dyeing, were carried out; each householder having two or three 
looms, and employing eight or ten hands, men, women and children; 
the product, when finished, being taken to the markets held periodically 
in some of the neighboring towns, to which merchants from the larger 
centers came to buy either for home consumption or for exportation 
to the Colonies or abroad. For ages the rule had been that the work- 
man himself owned his own machine as well as the raw materials of 
his industry; but as the demand increased and there was difficulty in 
getting enough yarn from the spinners, the merchants from the towns 



118 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

ter rather than a private affair. It left the capitalist 
still the owner of the great machinery of production, 
just as the worker had formerly owned his own small 
tools, and hence it not only made production social, 
rather than private, but made the capitalist the private 
owner and the petty master of social interests. This 
made the capitalists the private masters of social neces- 
sities just as if social necessities could properly be pri- 
vate affairs, subject to private ownership, to private 

began to supply the raw material themselves, and to give it out to the 
weavers ; still later, they .supplied not only the material but the looms 
also, which Avere now set up in the buildings belonging to these mer- 
chants, so that there was nothing left to the workman but his labor. 
This, it is to be observed, was before the new machines had revolution- 
ized the industry; anl yet so long as the little homestead weavers 
scattered over the land held their own, wages were kept up and even 
raised to meet the increased demand of the ever-growing population of 
the country and the Colonies. The condition of the workmen accord- 
ingly, in spite of the rapidly rising price of bread, was one of com- 
parative happiness and comfort; and this continued during all the years 
of the Factory System; wages being as much as doubled to meet the 
enormous demand which followed the cheapening of the prices of woolen 
and cotton goods by the new machines. 

"In the meantime the steam engine, which had been invented 
years before, was being applied to the new machinery; and thus fac- 
tories, which when water power alone was used had been scattered 
tories, which when water yoer alone was used had been scattered 
about the country on the banks of streams, were now transferred and 
confined to a few of the great towns — Leeds, Halifax, Manchester, 
Bolton and the rest — where an unlimited supply of labor could be 
picked up from the streets. And still the wages of the more skilled 
workmen were maintained, owing to the enormous increase of the 
demand. But when the power-loom was invented and applied; and 
when the factory chimneys in consequence rose ever thicker against 
the sky-line, and vast populations of human beings drawn from all 
the winds swarmed in the long rows of dingy streets that lay along- 
side of them and about their base; and when the output, as was in- 
evitable sooner or later, caught up with and at at last overtopped the 
demand, then came those recurring periods of ruinous recoil in the 
shape of over-production, gluts, falling markets, half-time and stag- 
nation; and — what was unknown in the world before then, — wages, 
from the sheer impossibility of regulating them in the jumble and 
confusion which the new machinery had caused, were suffered to be 
forced up and down at the caprice of the masters or according to 
the state of the market, as if the men had been bales of goods or 
sacks of coal. Seven centuries had come and gone since the men of 
these islands had fought hand to hand with the foreign invader; and 
meanwhile the laborer had passed by slow and gradual stages from 
serfdom to freedom; but he had all along been assured of a decent 
subsistence, either by his legal right as serf, or by wages fixed by 
Justices of the Peace acting as arbiters between master and man. 



Chap. IX THE ERA OF INVENTION 119 

control and hence to the private appropriation of the 
social products/ 

142. The Organization of Industry and Inventions. 
—It was the application of inventive genius to the or- 
ganization of labor, as well as to the improvement of 
tools, which made possible this development of ma- 
chines instead of simple, single-handed tools. So long 
as the worker was manufacturing shoes, working by 
himself, and making the whole shoe with his own labor, 
it never occurred to him to use other tools than the 
simple hand tools involved in the process. But the 
division of labor, so that one worked at tanning the 
leather, another at cutting the shoes, another at putting 
on soles, another at the heels, suggested the possibility 
of the use of machines to do the simple things which 
each separate part of the process involved. No inventor 
would ever have undertaken to invent a machine which 



And now after seven centuries of peace, war had broken out, but 
this time industrial war, fought, it is true with legal weapons, but all 
the more subtle and deadly on that account, and waged for the 
golden spoils which the new inventions were pouring out in sackfuls 
along the streets to be scrambled for, — and with issue in the event of 
failure, starvation. In this struggle, the masters, by a curious con- 
junction of circumstances, ill-timed for the men, easily got the up- 
per hand, and holding the men down, bound hand and foot in the meshes 
of some old statutes and regulations. * * *" — Crozier: History 
of Intellectual Development, Vol III, pp. 47***50. 

7. "To be a capitalist is to have not only a purely personal, but 
a social status in production. Capital is a collective product, and only 
by the united action of many members, nay, in the last resort, only by 
the united action of all members of society, can it be set in motion. 

"Capital is therefore not a personal; it is a social power. 

"When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into 
the property of all members of society, personal property is not thereby 
transformed into social property." — ^Marx and Engels; Communist Mani- 
festo, p. 35. 

"The conditions of labor underwent (in the Industrial Revolution) 
the greatest modification they have experienced since the origin 
of society. * * * That transformation from patriarchal labor into 
industrial feudalism, in which the workman, the new serf of the work- 
shop, seems bound to the glebe of wages, did not alarm the English 
producers, although it had the character of suddenness quite adapted 
to disturb their habits. They were far from foreseeing that machinery 
would bring them so much power and so many anxious cares." — ^Blanqui: 
History of Political Economy, pp. 430-31. 



120 THE EVOLUTON OF CAriTALlSM Part II 

would make a shoe, but when a worker was set to put- 
ting on heels, he was not long in devising a machine 
which greatly quickened the process and added largely 
to the volume and value of his product. 

143. Power Machinery, Connecting Machinery and 
Machine Tools.— Invention has been developed along 
three lines.^ 

(1) One has been devices by which other forces 
could be made to take the place of hand power. It is 
said that a horse, when harnessed and set to the plow, 
could, at the beginning, turn thirty times as much soil 
in a day as its driver was before able to turn with a 
spade. The treadmill, the sweepstake and devices for 
the use of wind, water, steam, electricity and the gas 
engine, are all instances in the development of machines 
whose purpose is to make available other forces for 
motive power to supplant hand power. As the horse 
was first used, the effectiveness of machines since in- 
troduced for this purpose is measured by so many 
'' horse-power.'' (2) The development of tools in- 
tended to take the place of the hands of the worker. 
(3) The shafting, belts, chains and knuckle joints, 
with which the power is carried from the power ma- 
chine to the machine tool. But this has not been one 
of such difficulties as were met with in providing the 
power or in devising the machines which would take 
the place of the skill of the human hands. 

The automatic machine, for taking the place of the 
human hands, is being developed with great rapidity. 
It was only a few years ago that watchmakers supposed 
that their craft was beyond the reach of machinery; 
but now no human hands can make the works of a 
watch so accurately as the machines since devised for 
that purpose. It is claimed that the labor cost for the 
works of a standard watch is but fifteen cents and that 

8. Marx: Capital, pp. 367-68. 



Chap. IX THE ERA OF INVENTION 121 

the cutting machinery can be adjusted to the one two- 
hundredth part of a hair. 

The trend of development is, that whatever needs 
to be lifted, the working man is required simply to at- 
tach the machine, and that whatever needs to be formed 
in the process of manufacture, the working man is re- 
quired in order to stop and start the machine, but even 
in his function as a starter his occupation is being 
taken away. 

Fifty years ago, in the manufacture of nails, it re- 
quired a man with the training of an apprentice and 
the skill and care of an experienced worker, but today 
a nail machine makes sixteen nails at a stroke and all 
the worker needs to do is to hang up that many coils 
of wire, adjust them to the machinery, set it in mo- 
tion, and come around again to renew the supply when 
the machinery has eaten up and transformed into nails 
the raw materials so placed within its reach. 

144. The Skilled Worker and Machinery.— In the 
old industry, the skill was in the hands of the worker. 
The simple tools are of little value except the trained 
hand, which has learned its trade in long years of 
practice, is present to wield the tools. The genius of 
modern industry expresses itself, not in the skill of 
the worker, but in the intricate and difficult contriv- 
ances of the inventor. Equipped with this machinery, 
women are driving their husbands out of the shops, 
and children are displacing their mothers, and the 
skilled trades are disappearing before the onslaught of 
the inventor in a conflict where no other form of at- 
tack had been able to withstand the organizations of 
these trades. 

145. Displacement of Labor.— The first economic ef- 
fect of labor-saving machinery is to displace labor.^ 

9. "But in the great majority of cases, the whole advantage of a 
new discovery, a new process, and a new machine rests with the 



122 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

It has been argued that such labor is re-employed in 
making machinery. If it were all so re-employed, then 
there would be no saving of labor. It is argued that it 
is re-employed in producing new articles; that these 
new articles are demanded for the use of those whose 
income is enlarged by the existence of the machine, and 
the enlargement of income means a corresponding en- 
largement of expenditure ; that the additional expendi- 
ture means additional articles of use, and that, there- 
fore, together with this advancing of the standard of 
living, comes necessarily the re-employment of the la- 
bor displaced by the new machine. 

But the answer is, that the new machine is constant- 
ly entering every new field and that the process of dis- 
placement is as continuous in the new demands which 
the increased incomes of the owners of the machines 
enable them to make as in the old ones; that the ma- 
chinery is meeting the worker at every point, increas- 
ing the productivity of the shops while it lessens the 
number of workers required, and that this displacement 
occurs all along the line. It is absurd to contend that 
the displaced labor in one shop finds re-employment in 
another, while as a matter of fact the process of dis- 
placement is going on in all shops. 

146. Loss of Solidarity.— One of the most important 
effects of the modern development of machinery on the 
question of labor has been that during the time of its 
development and under the wage system, it has divided 
the workers into all sorts of smaller groups; has pro- 
vided for some much better opportunities than for oth- 
ers, and while there has been a continuous struggle be- 

capitalist employer. The great inventions of steam and the machin- 
ery employed in textile fabrics remained with those who invented and 
applied these capital forces and processes. The artisan, by whose 
labor the development of this wealth was alone possible, became more 
impoverished and stinted. If population was stimulated, it was made 
more miserable, and population will grow ra^idly^ when the condition of 
the people is deteriorated," — Rogers: V?.- ♦yages, pp. 545-46. 



Chap. IX THE ERA OF INVENTION 123 

tween those in possession of the means of production 
and those without any ownership in them, still many 
of those without ownership have been able to deliver 
themselves from the necessity of further toil through 
industry, thrift or theft, and so by becoming the owners 
of tools which others must use, escape themselves from 
the working class. 

147. Individual Deliverance.— As a matter of fact, 
the development of the equipment and organization of 
modern capitalism has been almost wholly the achieve- 
ment of those who were themselves from the ranks of 
the workers. In the early development of industry, and 
especially on the frontiers, there were industrial and 
commercial opportunities by which a part of the work- 
ers could effect an advance over the fortunes of their 
fellows, and so by looking out for themselves provide 
for themselves, each on his own account, which tended 
to obscure, if not obliterate, all sense of solidarity of 
interest among the workers themselves. 

148. Workers Again Bound to Their Class.— But as 
the organization and equipment of industry becomes 
more perfect, it is becoming increasingly difficult for 
a born worker to escape from his class. The brightest 
minds among the workers a hundred years ago were 
giving their whole strength to the achievement of their 
own individual deliverance from the working class and 
to securing to themselves position and standing among 
the builders of new industrial establishments. But as 
advance is made toward completion of industrial plants 
and the perfection of industrial equipments, and es~ 
pecially the organization of industry on a world-wide 
basis, the unusually gifted, along with the rest, will be 
doomed to remain in the ranks of the workers. 

This is true, not only of the trades, but of the profes- 
sions. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make a 
beginning in any of the professions, or, being a child 



124 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

of poverty, to work one 's way out of the dependent re- 
lations into which such a birth delivers him. 

149. The Strong Men— To Save Themselves Must 
Save Their Class.— It was the men of unusual ability 
among the workers of the last generation who have had 
the larger share in creating the capitalism of this gen- 
eration, but the men of the same gifts in this genera- 
tion and the next will be able to save themselves only 
by creating conditions under which all others may 
achieve deliverance along with themselves. 

The culmination of capitalism will close the doors 
of opportunity against the very gifts and powers among 
the workers which at the first so largely created capital- 
ism, and in the end these same gifts and x^owers for 
organization and direction which have arisen from 
among the workers to create modern capitalism, in the 
past generations, will in this or the next generation 
capture, for the use of all, the organization and equip- 
ment which the genius of the workers created, but 
which the forms of capitalism have diverted from the 
saving of labor to the oppression of the laborers. 

And so this era of invention, which began with some 
of the workers, once more their own employers, which 
vastly and rapidly improved the means of production, 
which excited the hopes of the wage worker to the 
degree of obscuring for many years the real economic 
class lines, and finally set the statesmen of whole con- 
tinents to denying the existence of economic classes at 
all, culminates with bringing the workers once more 
to realize the common dependence of the whole class of 
the workers on the whole class of the capitalist em- 
ployers. This struggle of the worker to own his own 
shop, the struggle of the small shop to become a large 
one, the effort of the workers to escape one at a time, 
has utterly failed to deliver the class of workers and 
the economic class lines were never clearer between 



Chap. IX THE ERA OF INVENTION 125 

master and slave, between lord and serf, than they are 
now between the exploiter and the exploited, in these 
days of the triumph of the machine, in its equipment of 
capitalism, and the triumph of capitalism, in making 
the public interests of all the private possessions of a 
few.i^ 

150. Summary.— 1„ Throughout the primitive life 
of the race, each advance in the social life was the re- 
sult of an improvement in the tools or weapons used in 
providing existence or defense. 

2. The improvement of tools practically came to a 
sudden stop with the beginning of slavery, which be- 
came universal with the coming of civilization. 

3. Throughout the period of civilization, until re- 
cent years, there was very little improvement of the 
tools; during this period the social. changes were the 
results of changes in the manner of the organization 
and use of labor, or of military power, rather than by 
changes in the tools used by the laborers. 

4. The revival of inventions was the result of the 
self -employment of labor in northern Europe and in 
America. 



10. "The strange story of Frankenstein was, I make no doubt, sug- 
gested to Mary Godwin out of the opinions which she received from her 
fathero Frankenstein had contrived to put life into a gigantic being 
which he had constructed, and on which he intended to bestow super- 
human strength, stature and beauty. His creation had strength and 
stature but was unutterably and shockingly hideous. The maker of 
the monster abandoned the horrible creature, which had to shift for 
itself, and to learn the arts of life in solitude, as all fled with loath- 
ing from the sight of it. It possessed infinite powers of endurance, 
infinite capacity for learning, great determination and cunning, ir- 
resistible strength. It yearned for society, for sympathy, and for 
kindness; and meeting with none of these, being rejected by all and 
made a loathsome outcast, after it had been called into being, it be- 
came an infuriate fiend, which pursued with implacable hate and with 
the most cruel wrongs the man who, being the author of its existence, 
was thereupon its most detested enemy. This remarkable conception 
was intended, it is clear, to personify the misery, the loneliness, the 
endurance, the strength, the revenge of that anarchic spirit which mis- 
government engenders, the suddenness with which its passions seize 
their opportunities, and the hopelessness of the pursuit after it, when 
it has spent its fury for a time. Most European governments have 
been engaged in the work of Frankenstein, and have created the mon- 
sters with whom they have to deal." — Rogers: Work and Wages, p. 
554. 



126 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

5. The economic effect of machinery is the displace- 
ment of labor. 

6. The social effect of the introduction of machinery, 
together with the opportunities which new countries 
offer for self -employment, even with the old tools, has 
been to largely obscure the line of division between the 
owners and the workers of the world. The oppor- 
tunity for some of the workers to escape has led to the 
feeling that all workers could escape from the depend- 
ence of the wage workers ' lot, if determined to do so. 

7. The social effect of the completion of the equip- 
ment of industry, organized in world-wide trusts, is to 
close the door of opportunity for all those born to the 
lot of the working man, and will compel the strong 
minds of the working class to struggle, along with the 
rest, for the emancipation of all, as the only means 
whereby may come the deliverance of any. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What relation did the improvements in the tools of primitive 
industry have to the development of the race life? 

2. When did the improvement in ancient tools cease, and why? 

3. What form of industrial change took the place of changes in 
the tools as the cause of social advance, after the improvement in the 
tools had ceased? 

4. For how long a time did the improvement in tools practically 
cease and under what conditions was invention revived? 

5. Name the main lines along which inventions have been de- 
veloped, 

6. How were inventions stimulated by the division of labor? 

7. What is the economic effect of the introduction of machinery? 

8. Is displaced labor re-employed? 

9. How did the modern era of development affect the class lines 
during its earlier advance? " 

10. What effect is the completer development having on the 
same lines? 

11. Whence came the ability to organize and develop great en- 
terprises ? 

12. When those with ability to organize and direct great enter« 
prises can no longer save themselves, each acting alone, from the work- 
ing class, what then will be the way of escape ? 



CHAPTEE Si 

THE TRUST, THE WORLD MARKET AND IMPERIALISM 

151. Evolution of the Corporation.— The corpora 
tion came into existence, not by the base or criminal 
actions of men. The great machine made joint owner- 
ship inevitable. This joint ownership was first under- 
taken by partnerships. But as the result of long years 
of business experience and development, the corpora- 
tion appeared. It came as the survival of the form 
of organization best fitted to the necessities of effect- 
ive joint ownership. But the corporation itself is still 
subject to the same law of the survival of the fittest 
and the destruction of the unfittest, and the evolution 
of capitalism into new forms of organization still con- 
tinues. And these new forms are created just as the 
old ones were, by economic necessities— not as the re- 
sult of the good or the bad qualities of the individuals 
involved. 

152. Victory of the Big Machines.— The corpora- 
tion came as a body large enough, by the joint sav- 
ings of the individual earnings of many, to make pos- 
sible the joint ownership of the great machines. The 
use of these machines at once made necessary a larger 

127 



128 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part 11 

market. This was at first secured by a destructive com- 
petition of the new and larger machines against the 
older and smaller ones— and, in the beginning of mod- 
ern capitalism, against the simple tools of primitive in- 
dustry. Because those with great machines produced 
with greater economy, they were able to destroy com- 
petitors who were working with inferior tools. This 
would lead to the day when no more markets could be 
obtained by destroying competitive establishments 
with inferior equipments. 

153. A Wider Market.— Every improvement in the 
machinery meant a larger product, and, hence, a wider 
market. In the nature of the case, the time must come 
when the best machinery would be in many establish- 
ments and many such establishments would be con- 
tending for supremacy in the same market.^ In such 

1. "There is every reason to believe that with a diminution in 
the number of competitors and an increase of their size, competition 
grows keener and keener. Under old business conditions custom held 
considerable sway; the personal element played a larger part alike 
in determining quality of goods and good faith; purchasers did not 
so closely compare prices; they were not guided exclusively by fig- 
ures; they did not systematically beat down prices, nor did they de- 
vote so large a proportion of their time, thought, and money to de- 
vices for taking away one another's customers. From the ne\v busi- 
ness this personal element and these customary scruples have almost 
entirely vanished, and as the net advantages of large scale production 
grow, more and more attention is devoted to the direct work of com- 
petition. Hence we find that it is precisely in those trades which are 
most highly organized, provided with the most advanced machinery, 
and composed of the largest units of capital, that the fiercest and 
most unscrupulous competition has shown itself. The precise part 
which machinery, with its incalculable tendency to over-production, 
has played in this competition remains for later consideration. Here 
it is enough to place in evidence the acknowledged fact that the 
growing scale of the business has intensified and not diminished com- 
petition. In the great machine industries trade fluctuations are most 
severely felt; the smaller businesses are unable to stand before the tide 
of depression and collapse, or are driven in self-defense to coalesce. 
The borrowing of capital, the formation of joint stock enterprises and 
every form of co-operation in capital has proceeded most rapidly in 
the textile, metal, transport, shipping, and machine-making indus- 
tries, and in those minor manufactures, such as brewing and chemicils, 
which require large quantities of expensive plant. This joining togeth- 
er of small capitals to make a single large capital, this swallowing up 
of small by large businesses, means nothing else than the endeavor to 



Cbap. X THE TRUST, THE WORLD MARKET, ETC. 12^ 

a case, the smallest advantage in the effectiveness of 
the machinery used, in the skill with which labor was 
organized and employed, or in the ability with which 
the market was sought for— would give the final mas- 
tery to that corporation in whose favor the general av- 
erage of advantage was found to fall. An absolute 
equilibrium in all these particulars could not be hoped 
for; but even that could not prevent the unavoidable 
movement of capitalism towards concentration. 

154. Bankruptcy and Consolidation.— Two such cor- 
porations facing each other, buying raw materials in 
the same market, hiring labor in the same market, us- 
ing machinery of the same efficiency, could not success- 
fully withstand and finally prevent the consolidation 
of their enterprises. 

Under such conditions, one of three things must hap- 



escape the risks and dangers attending small-scale production in the 
tide of modern industrial changes. But since all are moving in the same 
direction, no one gains upon the other. Certain common economics are 
shared by the monster competitors, but more and more energy must 
be given to the work of competition, and the productive economies are 
partly squandered in the friction of fierce competition, and partly 
pass over to the body of consumers in lowered prices. Thus the en- 
deavor to secure safety and high profits by the economies of large- 
scale production is rendered futile by the growing severity of the com- 
petitive process. Each big firm finds itself competent to undertake more 
business than it already possesses, and underbids its neighbor until the 
cutting of prices has sunk the weaker and driven profits to a bare 
subsistence point for the stronger competitors. 

"So long as the increased size of business brings with it a net eco- 
nomic advantage, the competition of ever larger competitors, whose 
total power of production is far ahead of sales at remunerative prices, 
and who are therefore constrained to devote an increased proportion 
of energy to taking one another's trade, must intensify this cut-throat 
warfare. The diminishing number of competitors in a market does not 
ease matters in the least, for the intensity of the strife reaches its 
maximum when two competing businesses are fighting a life or death 
struggle. As the effective competitors grow fewer, not only is the 
proportion of attention each devotes to the other more continuous and 
aiore highly concentrated, but the results of success more intrinsically 
valuable, for the reward, of victory over the last competitor is the at- 
tainment of monopoly." — ^Hobson: Evolution of Modern Ca^italdssc, 
pp. 120-22. 



130 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

pen; and whichever happens, consolidation must nec- 
essarily result.^ 

First, if either proved in the slightest degree to be 
the superior of the other, the inferior would be driven 
into bankruptcy as the result of a prolonged battle for 
the control and monopoly of the market. Then the 
successful establishment would absorb the business of 
both, and consolidation would result. 

Secondly, if they should prove equally strong in the 
strife for the market, they could stay in the fight until " 

2 "Arranging in their logical order the laws of competition which 
we have found, we have the following diagram: 

!( 1 ) The intensity of 
competition i n - 
creases as the num- 
ber of competing 
units decreases. 
S § 1 --^ .u .w..x^. ^ y ._...... (2) The intensity of 

B a ] increases. m proportion to its competition i n - 

t>, /intensity. V ^^^J^^ ^.^^ ^^^ 



51 ,—<' 



g^\ I I amount of capital 

.§ g \ 1 / required for each 

.S 9 j \ / competing unit. 

a i (2) As the number of competing units decreases. 

^ I ' 

tjrj^l (3) As the amount of capital required for each competing 

^ ^ 1 unit increases, 

(4) As the number of available natural agents decreases. 

"The preceding diagram sets plainly before us the three great 
salient causes from which have grown the long list of monopolies 
under which our civilization labors. First, the supply of natural 
agents of which new competitors in any industry may avail them- 
selves has been largely exhausted, or has been gathered up by exist- 
ing monopolies to render their position more secure, the world has 
not the natural resources to develop that it had a century ago. 
Second, the concentration of all the productive industries, except 
agriculture, into great establishments, while it has enormously les- 
sened the cost of production, has so reduced the number of compet- 
ing units that a monopoly is the inevitable final result. Last, the 
enormous capital required for the establishment and maintenance of 
new competing units tends to fortify the monopoly in its position 
and renders the escape of the public from its grasp practically im- 
possible. These terse statements contain exactly the kernel of po- 
tent truth for which we are seeking; monopolies of every sort are 
an inevitable result from certain conditions of modern civilization. 

"The vital importance of this truth cannot be over-estimated. 
For so long as we refuse to recognize it, so long as we attempt to 



Chap.X the trust, the WORLD MARKET, ETC. 131 

both were ruined and some new company took the 
business of both— which, again, would be consolida- 
tion.^ 

Thirdly, if they should refuse to contend and instead 
combine, then there is combination direct and outright. 

stop the present evils of monopoly by trying to add a feeble one to 
the number of competing units, or by trying to legislate against spe- 
cial monopolies, we are only building a temporary dam to shut out 
a flood which can only be controlled at the fountain head. 

"The facts of history testify to the truth of this law. Monopo- 
lies were never so abundant as to-day, never so powerful, never so 
threatening; and with unimportant exceptions they have all sprung up 
with our modern industrial development. The last fifteen years have 
seen a greater industrial advancement than did the thirty preceding, 
but they have also witnessed a more than proportionate growth of 
monopolies. How v/orse than foolish, then, is the short-sightedness 
that ascribes monopolies to the personal wickedness of the men who 
form them. It is as foolish to decry the wickedness of trust makers 
as it is to curse the schemes of labor monopolists. Each is working 
unconsciously in obedience to a natural law; and the only reason that 
almost every man is not engaged in forming or maintaining a similar 
monopoly is that he is not placed in similar circumstances. Away, 
then, with the pessimism which declares that the prevalence of mo- 
nopolies evidences the decay of the nobler aspirations of humanity. The 
monopolies of today are a natural outgrowth of the laws of modern 
competition, and they are as actually the result of the application of 
steam, electricity, and machinery to the service of men as are our fac- 
tories and railways. Great evils though they may have become, there 
is naught of evil omen in them to make us fear for the ultimate wel- 
fare of our liberties. 

"To the practical mind, however, the question at once occurs, what 
light have we gained toward the proper method of counteracting this 
evil? Can it be true that the conditions of modern civilization neces- 
sitate our subjection to monopolies, and that all our vaunted progress 
in the arts of peace only brings us nearer to an inevitable and de- 
plorable end, in which a few holders of the strongest monopolies shall 
ride rough-shod over the industrial liberties of the vast mass of 
humanity? Were this true, perhaps we had better take a step back- 
ward; relinquish the factory for the workshop, the railway for the 
stage coach. 'Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, 
than to divide the spoil with the proud.' But the law we have found 
commits us to no such fate. We cannot, indeed, abolish the causes 
of monopolies. We cannot create new gifts of Nature, and it would 
be nonsense to attempt to bring about an increase in the number of 
competing units and a decrease in the capitalization of each by ex- 
changing our factories and works of today for the workshops of our 
grandfathers." — Baker: Monopolies and the People, pp. 158-161. 

3. "John D. Rockefeller, President of the Standard Oil Company, 
in a written statement submitted to the Industrial Commission, Jan- 
uary 10, 1900, thus summarized his views concerning trusts: 

^ 'It is too late to argue about the advantages of industrial com- 
Dinations. Their chief advantages are: 1. Command of necessary 



132 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

And hence, in the third and only other possible out- 
come there is still consolidation. Consolidation is as 
directly the result of the bankruptcy of a part or of all 
of the competitors as it is the result of the combina- 
tion of all.^ 

155. The Trust— Consolidation Without Bank- 
ruptcy.— The trust is such a combination of corpora- 
tions, created to avoid the bankruptcy which other- 
wise was inevitable, for a part or all of the competitors. 
If the corporations had refused to combine they could 
not have prevented consolidation. It would have come 
by the same process of the elimination of the more poor- 
ly equipped or the less capable management and the 
survival and enlargement of the establishments best 
fitted to survive in the midst of such an economic war- 
fare. The trust simply does intelligently and with fore- 
sight and without the bankruptcy of the competing 
parties, what competition would otherwise have accom- 
plished in spite of the corporations, but by the familiar 
old road of business failures on the one hand, and 
the capture of trade on the other. 

156. The Trust at Work.— Now, follow this neces- 
sary evolution of capitalism into the trust organiza- 
tion, and notice a few things which necessarily follow 



capital. 2. Extension of limits of business. 3. Increase of the num- 
ber of persons interested in the business. 4. Economy in the business. 
5. Improvements and economies which are derived from know^ledge of 
many interested persons of vi^ide experience. 6. Power to give the 
public improved products at les& prices and still make a profit for 
stockholders. 7. Permanent work and good wages for laborers'." — 
Nettleton: Trust or Competition, p. 138. 

4. "Indeed, one of the pressing questions is, whether the inde- 
pendent producers who have been crowded out of the field are unfor- 
tunate sufferers from natural progress, or whether they are the vic- 
tims of a wrong against which society should protect them. More 
centralization means a crushing out of competitors by a process that, 
however hard it is for them, is in a way legitimate; for it is an in- 
cident of the process of the survival of the fittest." — Professor Clark 
(Columbia University): The Control of the Trusts, pp. 19-21. 



Chap. X THE TRUST, THE WORLD I^IARKET, ETC. 133 

the coming of the trust. Notice that the trust does not 
naturally arise until there are more factories contend- 
ing for the same market than are needed to supply that 
market. It is because the market cannot employ all, 
that some must fail.^ And hence, the fight for survi- 
val. When the trust comes, it cannot sell more goods 
in the same market. It can only shut down a part of 
its factories without making their owners bankrupts. 
"Without the trust, the same factories must have closed 
anyway, but by making their owners bankrupts.^ 

157. Closing Factories.— Which factories are sure 
to close? Those where raw materials, transportation 
and labor are found to be most expensive. The fac- 
tories which are best located and best equipped for 
winning in the competitive fight are the ones to produce 
what the market can take, and earn dividends, not 
only for their own former stockholders, but also for 
investments made in plants now doomed to idleness. 
The trust will always endeavor to manufacture at that 
place within the territory controlled by the trust where 
raw materials are cheapest, transportation least ex- 
pensive and labor most helpless. The general average 
of advantage in these particulars will determine which 
factories are to close. 

158 Looking for Investments.— Again, so soon as 
the trust appears in any single line of production, there 
is thereafter not the same demand for the re-invest- 
ment of its own earnings in its own business. While the 
corporations were competing with each other, each cor- 

5. "Xo doubt there are occasions on which a trade cannot con- 
tinue to produce at its full strength without forcing the sale of its 
wares on an inelastic market disastrous to itself." — Marshall: Prin- 
ciples of Economics, p. 411. 

6. "With the exception of the Standard Oil trust, and perhaps 
one or two others that rose somewhat earlier, it mav be fairly said, 
I think, that not merely competition, but competition that was 
proving ruinous to many establishments, was the cause of combina- 
tions." — Jenks: Economic Journal, Vol. II., p. 73, 



134 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

poration was obliged to re-invest its earnings in enlarg- 
ing its own business equipment and in extending, by 
competitive advertising and competing salesmen, the 
volume of its business. For only the corporation which 
could do things on the largest scale could produce most 
cheaply and so be best able to survive. 

159. Economies of the Trust.— But as soon as the 
trust is established, the cost of competing salesmen and 
competing advertising, together with the wages, or 
salaries, of great numbers of workers is saved to the 
combination; and, besides, instead of building more 
shops, a great saving is made by closing a portion of 
those already built. As a result, the earnings are larger 
and, the demand for reinvestment in their own business 
ceasing, large sums are set at liberty to invest in other 
lines of business. But the very nature of machine pro- 
duction so relates many lines of manufacturing that 
the finished product of one manufacturer is the raw 
material of another. The trust having its earnings free 
for re-investment, follows its finished products into the 
related factories and buys or builds related plants, one 
after another, until it reaches the consumer direct. It 
follows its raw materials back through the preceding 
factories and finally to the natural resources direct. 

The tanners reach forward into the shoe factory and 
to the harness shop, and backward to the raw hides 
until the leather trust controls the whole industry, from 
the cattle ranch to the purchaser, who consumes the 
goods. And then its earnings, seeking re-investment, 
must enter unrelated lines of business. 

160. Monopoly and the Trust.— Finally, whenever a 
trust is established to control any particular market, 
others not before selling in that market, attracted by 
the better conditions for trade, will become competitors 
with the trust, with the result that the same old con- 
flict for control is again renewed, which may end in the 



Chap. X THE TRUST, THE WORLD MARKET, ETC. 135 

bankruptcy of either or both of the competitors or in 
a further combination; but, in any case, as shown above, 
in a further consolidation of the business. With each 
new enlargement, new competitors will arise, until all 
competitors selling in that market have either combined 
with or been destroyed by this ever-growing concentra- 
tion of business. Therefore, when the trust has once 
appeared in any line of trade, there is thereafter no 
logical stopping place for its growth until it has de- 
stroyed, or compelled to combine with itself, all com- 
petitors selling in the same market."^ 

161. The International Trust.— But the trust is be- 
coming international. It sells in the world market.^ 
Therefore, there is no logical stopping place for the 
growth of the trust until it has destroyed, or forced to 
combine with itself, all competitors selling in the 
world 's market.^ And hence, from all the foregoing, it 
is clearly seen that, trust or no trust, consolidation 
which effects the same economic consequences as the 
trust is the necessary result of prolonged and de- 
termined competition for control of the same market, 
and that the trust, once in existence, must continue its 
evolution and necessary growth until one trust shall 
control all lines of business on all the earth, and shall 
produce for that whole world, at that place on all the 
earth where materials are cheapest, access to the sea 
most direct and labor most helpless. 

7. See close of Note 1 above. 

8. "It was Marx who first clearly pointed out the nature of the 
domestic system and its transformation into the factory system of 
our age, with the attendant change from the local to the national 
market, and from this in turn to the world market." — Seligman: The 
Economic Interpretation of History, p. 69. 

9. "Nevertheless, though these great economic movements were 
retarded, they could not be wholly arrested. Capitalism has gradually 
overcome the medieval obstacles; it has swept away local exclusive- 
ness, and has been the means of developing large economic areas. A 
revolution has taken place in business practice, and the breaking down 
of commercial restrictions is a change which has affected the traders 
in all lands." — Cunningham: The Cambridge Modern History,p. 531. 



136 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

162. The World Market.— At the begmning of this 
century, there were many different nations. To a large 
degree, each nation had its own goveniment, its own 
language, its own peculiar institutions, and especially 
its own industrial and commercial life. But ns each 
nation has developed its own industries, it has been 
compelled to look for foreign markets in order to dis- 
pose of the goods which the workers make, which the 
masters cannot use, and which the wages paid uader 
capitalism are not enough to enable the workers to buy; 
and hence, the development of the century has been in 
the direction of a world market.^^ As each nation has 
extended its market, it has multiplied its battle-ships, 
built its coaling stations, and protected its own mer- 
chantmen as they have bought or sold in all lands. In- 
dustry and commerce have become a matter of interna- 
tional concern.^^ 

163. The Money Changer.— In connection with in- 
dustry and commerce in international trade, the ex- 
change of international credits and the payment of bal- 
ances in specified commodities, as gold or silver bullion, 

10. "The phase of civilization through which mankind is now 
passing opened in 1870. For many years previous to the German vic- 
tory (Franco-Prussian War, 1870) a quickening of competition, caused 
by a steady acceleration of movement, had been undermining the equi- 
librium reached at the battle of Waterloo (1815). * * * Every- 
where society tends to become organized in greater an'd denser masses, 
the more vigorous and economical mass destroying the less active and 
more wasteful." — Adams: Economic Supremacy, p. 26. 

11. "The right of association must be free; the magnitude of as- 
sociation must correspond with the magnitude of the business to be 
done; business can no longer be localized; it cannot be confined by 
state lines; when the problem is to open and keep open the markets 
of the world, it is sheer madness to attempt to restrict the business as 
of that of a local manufacturer. * * * The law is possibly our 
best guide on this subject. It has progressed as experience and the 
necessities of business required, from the idea that all combinations 
were wrong to the idea that all persons should be left free to combine 
for all legitimate purposes. * * * In reviewing the history of the 
Standard combination, I expect to demonstrate that the necessities of 
the business demanded association on a large scale." — S. C. J. Dodd, 
Solicitor of the Standard Oil Trust. Quoted by Nettleton: Trusts or 
Competition? p. 195. 



Chap. X THE TRUST, THE WORLD MARKET, ETC 137 

have made the international money-changer a factor 
of the first importance. His profits depend on the dis- 
counts, the exchaiiges and the gathering in of forfeited 
collaterals on loans made by him. 

In any particular neighborhood the money-changer, 
by withholding credit, may bring ruin to the business 
of one neighbor, while by extending credit he may de- 
velop the business of another. He may lend for the 
very purpose of enlarging business and getting posses- 
sion of collaterals on easy terms for the borrower. He 
may withdraw his loans for the very purpose of con- 
verting to his own use the collaterals which the same 
borrower has pledged for his ^ ' accommodations. ' ' 

But trade has become international, and the interna- 
tional money-changer has the same grip on the nations 
of the earth that the old-time money-lord had for a long 
time upon his neighbors. In time of peace, the interna- 
tional money-changer can ^^send home securities"— 
that is, refuse credit to one country to its hurt, and ex- 
tend credit to another country in a manner— for a time, 
at least— to greatly enlarge its business. He may thus 
work one country against another by turns, and all 
the time be the master of both. In time of war, he may 
recall old loans; grant or withhold new loans; dictate 
alliances, equip armies, and so control the conditions 
on which victory depends. 

164. The New World Power.— Here, then, are four 
things new and startling in their significance, though 
all are but the culmination of a century of development. 
In fact, they are the outgrowth of all the centuries. 
They are : first, the international trust ; second, the fed- 
eration of all trusts; third, the presence of all flags on 
all seas; fourth, a single power both in the trusts and 
behind the flags in all lands and on all seas. 

165. The Monopoly of the Earth.— The logical cul- 
mination will be-many factories, but only one corpora- 



138 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

tion of manufacturers ; many flags, but only one govern- 
ment; in fact, the speedy coming to fullness of power of 
a single private syndicate which shall own and govern 
all ; shall control the industry, commerce, courts and 
armies of all the earth.^^ And this is not to be the 
^ ' Parliament of man, the federation of the world. ' ' It is 
to be the parliament of dollars, the federation of the 
despoilers of the earth. 

166. The Surviving Factory.— When all the cor- 
porations engaged in any line of business combine into 
a trust to conduct all the business in any country, only 
those factories in all that country are continued in op- 
eration where materials are cheapest, transportation 
most advantageous and labor most helpless. When- 
ever the international trust comes into the fullness of 
its power, only those factories on all the earth will con- 
tinue in operation where materials are cheapest, trans- 
portation most advantageous, and labor most helpless. 
As in the case of a national trust, if the workers in th^ 
vicinity of a closed factory will consent to go on with 
the work on the terms at which the most helpless work- 
ers in any other portion of the country will consent to 
be employed, then, the chances for materials and trans- 
portation being equal, the work may go on in that fac- 
tory. So, also, in the case of the international trust, 
if the workers in any country where the standard of 
living and the wages of workers are high, if they too 
will consent to the terms under which the most help- 
less workers in all the earth consent to be employed, 
the chances for materials and transportation being 
equal, the work may go on in that country. Otherwise, 
the production of any particular article so involved 
will be transferred, and its production will remain 

12. "I confess that I feel humiliated at the truth, which cannot 
be disguised, that though we live under the form of a Republic (the 
United States), we are, in fact, under the rule of a single man."— 
Judge Story, quoted in "Annals of Toil," p. 199. 



Chap. X THE TRUST, THE WORLD MARKET, ETC 139 

transferred, to that place on all the earth where ma- 
terials are cheapest, the open sea within easy reach, and 
the toilers most helpless. 

167. International Strikes and Trusts.— Under such 
an organization, a successful strike in any single coun- 
try would be impossible. The workers in the United 
States might refuse to work ; but the shops in England 
Italy and China could take the work, and on the other 
side of the earth, beyond the reach of their industry to 
help, or of their rage to interfere; under the pro- 
tection of all the armies of the earth; supported by all 
the battle-ships of all the seas, the wheels will turn, and 
what the market can take, the international trust can 
produce. With the international trust once in control 
of the production of any given article, a strike can 
never again win in any shop producing that article un- 
til the helpless workers of China, India, and of all 
''the isles of the sea" shall have been made good and 
reliable members of the unions involved. Nor could a 
strike in any country succeed, even then, unless an in- 
ternational organization of the unions could be made 
more effiective in such a world encounter, without any 
armies on the land and without any battle-ships at sea, 
than the international trust could be made with all the 
armies of all lands and all the battle-ships of all the 
seas at its command. If these helpless workers are in- 
capable of such an effective membership in the unions, 
or if such an international organization of the unions 
would be helpless, because defenseless, then, under the 
international trust, the strike is at an end in all such 
shops. Heretofore, the factory has imported the help- 
less worker to compete with the trades unionist on his 
own ground and at the doors of the shop where the 
unionist was himself employed. Under the interna- 
tional trust, the factory itself may be exported instead. 
If the Chinese coolie is forbidden access to this coun- 



140 THE EVOLUTION OE CAPITALISM Part 11 

try, the international trust— protected by the interna- 
tional battle-ship— will take the factory to the Chinese 
coolie's own country.^^ 

168. The Tariff, the Trust and the Shanghai Fac- 
tory.— For a hundred years and more, American work- 
ers have largely supported a protective tariff in order 
not to be brought into competition with the pauper la- 
bor of other countries. Whatever may have been true 
of the past, under the international trust any possible 
advantage from the tariff to the American worker is 
at an end. It has been argued that freedom of trade 
would make necessary the payment in this country of 
the wages of the pauper labor of other countries, and 
to avoid this the products of the laborers of other coun- 
tries, who worked in other countries, have been for- 
bidden the American market except such payment be 
made as to balance the difference in wages. Whatever 
may have been true in the past, under the international 
trust the sum of the tariff on any given article will be 
promptly added to its price, and as the trust controls 
all the factories in that line in this country, American 
manufacturers will not compete to bring down the price 
at home. The tariff in such a case would add to the 
cost of living, but have no power to raise wages. This 
has been admitted, and the suggestion has been offered 
that whenever any article is made the subject of a trust 
organization it be put on the free list, and so open 
to the competition of the world. But under the in- 
ternational trust the same organization controls on 

13. "The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instru- 
ments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of commu- 
nication, draw all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization. 
The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which 
it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians 
to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt 
the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce 
what it calls civilization into their midst, i. e., to become bourgeois 
themselves. In a word, it creates a world after its own image. " — 
Marx and Engels: Communist Manifesto, p. 19. 



Chap. X THE TRUST, THE WORLD MARKET, ETC. 141 

both sides of the national boundary line, and it will 
be a matter of utter indifference to the trust whether 
you buy from its factory in Chicago, in Manchester 
or in Shanghai. The trust will fix its price for the 
trade of all countries and it will continue to be done 
by the arbitrary act of the trust which alone can fur- 
nish the goods. If the workers in this country will 
work on the basis of the Chinese coolies, then the 
people of this country may, if they wish, buy from a 
factory in this country. If the workers of this country 
refuse to join the Chinese coolies, they may join the 
American tramps instead, and the goods will come from 
Shanghai just the same. 

169. No Possible Competitor.— If it be said that ex- 
orbitant prices will mean large profits, and that new 
capital will be employed outside the international com- 
bination of all the trusts of all the countries, the an- 
swer is, that this international combination will con- 
trol the money of the earth, not to mention transporta- 
tion, on both land and sea, and all the other related 
lines of industry on which any new competing company 
must rely. This international combination will con- 
trol all the shops in the trust ; it will be able to destroy 
all shops not in the trust. It is self-evident that no new 
company, borrowing money from the trust or buying 
materials from the trust or shipping over lines owned 
by the trust, can live as a competitor with the trust. 

170. Cornered at Last.— Notice, then, that with the 
completion of this combination the strike will be in- 
effective, the tariff without force, and a new competitor 
impossible; and notice further that within the limits 
of what is possible, under capitalism, no other method 
of escape from the monopoly and tyranny of trade is 
even thinkable, to say nothing of its effectiveness. 

171. Imperialism.— And now as to the matter of 
imperialism and expansion, it is a matter of no con- 



142 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

cern to the helpless workers anywhere how far our flag 
shall be carried if its presence shall mean what every 
other battle flag on earth now means, and that is the 
extension of this trust-ruled industrial and commercial 
world life. 

172. Choosing a Flag to Starve Under.-What dif- 
ference does it make to a toiler what flag he starves un- 
der or what flag it is which supports those international 
policies which make certain the universal and helpless 
enslavement of the human race! If our flag goes 
abroad on such an errand, it means no harm to the 
worker which cannot come to him under some other 
flag, if our flag does not go. To keep our flag at home 
lest it should do the wrong, does not prevent the doing 
of the wrong; to send it abroad consenting to the wrong 
as the only means by which it may be unfurled in new 
and distant lands, is to send it as a defender of this in- 
ternational commercialism, which is only a system- 
atized form of international piracy, which is nothing 
else than the giving to the international capitalist the 
power of our flag to aid him in doing in other lands 
exactly the same thing which capitalism is doing at 
home. 

173. Imperialism, Militarism, Expansion, Capital- 
ism.— The imperialism of any or all the governments of 
the earth is a matter of no concern to the workers as 
long as the imperialism of international trade, mastered 
by an international trust, controlling all the industries 
of the earth, shall remain unchallenged. It is true that 
imperialism abroad does mean militarism at home. But 
it is also true that capitalism at home makes imperial- 
ism abroad absolutely inevitable. The international 
organization of industry and commerce which is so rap- 
idly culminating in the one international trust, includes 
the industry and commerce of America. The market 
for AmBrican products is international. The battle- 



Chap. X THE TRUST, THE WORLD MARKET, ETC. 143 

ship must go wherever the merchantman has gone. 
As long as capitalism, producing for an international 
market, rules American industry, " the battle-ship 
must go. 

Expansion is simply capitalism looking for a for- 
eign market. ^^ Imperialism is simply the power of the 
nation used to extend and protect that market. 

174. Summary.— 1. The use of the great machines 
made necessary ownership by the joint savings of 
many, employment of the joint labor of many and the 
great extension of the market, hence the coming of the 
manufacturing corporations. 

2. Corporations competing for the same market 
were obliged to combine to avoid mutual destruction. 
It resulted in the combination of some companies and 
the ultimate destruction of all others selling the same 
goods in the same market,— this is |;he trust. 

3. The extension of trade has created a world mar- 
ket. The organization of the trust, once undertaken, 
had to become as extensive as the market in which it 
sought to control the trade,— hence the international 
trust. 

4. Every industry is intimately connected with 
many other industries which furnish the materials or 
the tools or the transportation involved in its own busi- 
ness. To control one line of production sometimes 
makes possible, and sometimes necessary, the control 
of other lines of trade,— hence the federation of the 
trusts. 

5. The perfect equipment and large earnings of the 
trust make impossible the re-investment of its profits 
in the further development of its own business, because 

14. "All the energetic races have been plunged into a contest for 
the possession of the only markets left open capable of absorbing surplus 
manufactures, since all are forced to encourage exp'otts to maiBtain 
themselves." — Adams: Economic Supremacy, p. 29. 



144 7HE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Pabt II 

of the limitations of the market, and so compel the re- 
investment of the earnings of the trust in other lines of 
business, and thus bring new lines of business under the 
same control, and hence, again, the federation of the 
trusts. 

6. The exigencies of foreign relations control the 
domestic policies of all countries. International trade 
controls all foreign relations. The international trust 
is rapidly becoming the master of all international 
trade. It is becoming the political as well as the indus- 
trial despot of the world. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What made the creation of the manufacturing corporations 
necessary ? 

2. Why was the creation of the trust necessary? Can consolida- 
tion be prevented? 

3. Why must the trust become a world trust? 

4. Why has the federation of trusts taken place? 

5. Are there any forces which can prevent the culmination of 
business organization in a single world trust? 

6. Name some of the important things which such a world power, 
or single international trust, would be sure to control. 

7. How would this affect the interests of those not in the trusts? 

8. Would a successful strike then be possible? Why? 

9. Could any action regarding the tariff in any way affect the 
interests of an international trust? Why? 

10. Would the organization of new competing companies be pos- 
sible after the completion of the one international trust? Why? 

11. What is the cause at home of the policy of imperialism 
abroad ? 



CHAPTER XI 

THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM 

175. The Culmination.— Capitalism has a world- 
wide existence. All other forms of the organization of 
industry and commerce have been crowded out of ex- 
istence. World-wide consolidation cannot be prevent- 
ed. This culmination is inevitable. It is the purpose 
of this chapter to show that the final collapse of cap- 
italism is as inevitable as is continued growth and final 
consolidation under capitalism. 

176. Surplus Products.— Capitalism, under ma- 
chine production, produces more goods than the cap- 
italists can dispose of among themselves and their em- 
ployes. The capitalists take all the goods from the 
market which they can use or are willing to waste. The 
workers take all the goods from the market which their 
wages will pay for. 

It was recently stated, in the United States Senate, 
by Senator Hanna, that American production will have 
to be lessened at least one-third, or the foreign market 
must be held for American goods. This means that 
American workers are producing very largely, in ex- 
cess of what the American workers are able to buy, 

145 



146 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM. Part II 

over and above all that their eroployers can use or are 
willing to waste.^ 

If the workers of this country are doing this, it is 
also true that the workers of all countries are doing the 
same. If the accuracy of Senator Hanna's figures be 
denied, it will not be denied that the workers of all 
countries are all the time producing largely in excess 
of all that the workers of all the countries are able 
to buy, over and above all that their employers can 
either use or waste. 

177. The Foreign Market.— By means of the foreign 
market the attempt is made to dispose of this surplus, 
by the employers of different countries trying to sell 
to each other this surplus, which the workers could 
use, but cannot buy, and which the employers claim, 
but cannot use. To whatever extent the foreign market 
relieves the overstocked market of one country, it must 
at the same time increase the overstock or stop the 
industry of some other country which was before pro- 
ducing the same goods for the same market. If the 
great manufacturing countries are all of them pro- 
ducing thirty per cent more than the workers can buy 
with their wages,^ and over and above what their em- 
ployers can use or waste, this surplus cannot be long 
disposed of by international exchange, for however 
much this international exchange of goods, by ex- 
changing the staple articles of one country for the lux- 
uries of other countries, may add to what the capitalists 
may be willing to waste, it can in no way add to the pur- 
chasing power of the workers. 

lo " * * * The upshot of the whole matter, therefore, is that 
America has been irresistibly impelled to produce a large industrial 
surplus — a surplus, should no change occur, which will be larger in 
a few years than anything ever before known. Upon the existence 
of this surplus hinges the future, for the United States must provide 
sure and adequate outlets for her products, or be in danger of gluts 
more dangerous to her society than n;iany panics such as 1873 and 
1893." — Adams: American Economic Supremacy, p. 32. 

2. "Eiut the capacity for extension, extensive and intensive, of 



Chap. XI THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM 147 

178. Losing the Market.— If there are increased 
sales for any one country, it is because it has captured 
the trade and closed the shops of some other country.^ 
And so the struggle for the foreign market, wherever 

the markets is primarily governed by quite different laws, that work 
much less energetically. The extension of the markets cannot keep 
pace with the extension of production. The collision becomes inevitable, 
and as this cannot produce any real solution so long as it does not 
break in pieces the capitalist mode of production the collisions become 
periodic." — Engels: Socialism Utopian and Scientific, pp. 63-64. 

"And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the 
one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces ; on 
the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough 
exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for 
more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the 
means whereby crises are prevented." — Marx and Engels: Communist 
Manifesto, pp. 21-22. 

3. " 'A pound of home trade,' it has been said, 'is more significant 
to manufacturing industry than thirty shillings or two pounds of 
foreign.' The comparison may not be exact, but it is on the right 
lines. Now, one of the most important branches of our home trade 
must be the supplying of agriculturists with manufactures in exchange 
for food. But when the purchasing power of this class of the com- 
munity has sunk as much as £43,000,000 (more than $206,000,000) per 
annum, it is obvious that such a loss of custom must seriously affect 
manufactures. Again, no small portion of our home market must 
consist in the purchases made by the working classes, yet it does not 
seem to occur to capitalist manufacturers that if they pay a large 
proportion of the industrial classes the lowest possible wages, and get 
them to work the longest possible hours while thus obtaining an ever- 
increasing production of goods, the question must sooner or later be 
answered: Who is going to consume the goods thus produced? 

"The answer, as far as the capitalist is concerned, seems to be — 
foreign customers in new markets. English manufacturers and cap- 
italists have consistently supported that policy which seemed likely 
to open up these new markets for their goods. For a considerable 
time, as we saw, they occupied themselves very wisely in obtaining 
cheap raw material by passing enactments actuated by Free-Trade 
principles, and removing protective restrictions. Cheap raw material 
having thus been gained, and machinery having now been developed 
to such an extent as to increase production quite incalculably, Eng- 
land sends her textile and other products all over the world. She 
seems to find it necessary to discover fresh markets every ganeration 
or so, in order that this vast output of commodities may be sold. The 
merchant and manufacturing classes have supported and still support 
this policy, from a desire, apparently, rather to find new customers 
than to keep the old; and largely for the sake of British trade, wars 
have been made on China, Egypt, and Burmah, while at the present 
moment England is scrambling with Germany, Portugal, and other 
powers for the new markets of Africa. Today, indeed, the industrial 
history of our country seems to have reached a point when production 
under a purely mercantile system is over-reaching itself. It must go 
on an'd on without ceasing, finding or fighting for an outlet fo'r the 



148 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Pabt II 

trade shall finally gO; means destruction of industry 
for the losers in the conflict, and ultimate monopoly 
and world-mastery for the industrial victors. 

179. Purchasing Power.— But this is not all. Each 
such victory helps to destroy the purchasing power in 
the world-market of those countries whose shops are 
closed, and hence makes smaller, at the same time it 
monopolizes, this market for the victors. Whenever 
the world-trust shall come into complete control of the 
world-market and continues to produce more than its 
workers can buy, where, then, will it dispose of this 
surplus which the capitalist claims, but cannot use, and 
which the worker has produced and needs, but cannot 
buy I If the remedy shall be to produce less, then more 
workers are displaced and there will be still fewer to 
buy, and hence, a larger surplus than ever.^ Then cap- 
wealth produced, lest the whole gigantic system of international com- 
merce should break down by the mere weight of its own immensity. 
Meanwhile English manufacturers are complaining of foreign competi- 
tion in plaintive tones, a complaint which merely means that whereas 
they thought some years ago that they had a complete monopoly in 
supplying the requirements of the world, they are now perceiving that 
they have not a monopoly at all, but only a good start, while other 
nations are already catching them up in the modern race for wealth." — 
Gibbins: Industry in England, pp. 468-70. 

4. "Owing to the great capacity of modern machinery, the op- 
eratives employed by the investment of savings can only consume a 
very small proportion of their product. An outlet must be found either 
in the discovery of fresh markets in countries yet to be 'developed' — a 
problem which involves serious questions of foreign politics — or in in- 
creased home consumption. Leaving the former of these out of account 
for the present, as it brings up international competition, and from the 
nature of things must gradually diminish in importance as a solution, 
we see that an increasing proportion of the national income must be 
spent in order to absorb the goods originating from savings. Here a 
limitation arises from the manner in which the annual income is di- 
vided. Out of a population of about forty million persons, some eight- 
een millions are 'occupied,' and of these it is estimated that thirteen 
millions constitute the manual labor class. They and their dependents, 
therefore, form the home market for the great bulk of the production 
of goods for consumption, and on their ability to increase their effect- 
ive demand depends the utility of the increased productivity of in- 
dustry. But they receive only £650,000,000 out of the national income 
of £1,700,000,000, or less than one- third, and the spending capacity of 
a very large proportion of them is much below what the average repre- 
sents. Even those of them who are best off have but a very small 
margin for conventional luxuries after providing for the bare neces- 



Chap. XI THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM 149 

italism will be able to clear its shelves only by closing 
down its shops. Hence, the only final and logical out- 
come of the world-trust is to end the relief which may 
come to the industry of any one country by destroying 
the industry ef some other country. 

The world-market is already the one market of the 
world. The business of supplying that world-market is 
rapidly becoming the business of a single combination 
by the process of competition and the necessary con- 
solidation resulting from the combination of some, and 
the destruction of others, of the competitors. 

180. Commercial Suicide.— Whenever a part of the 
competitors are in a world-wide combination and have 
destroyed all other competitors, then the combination 
must proceed to destroy itself or abandon capitalism. 
For what can the handful of men, who may be in that 
final combination, do with thirty per cent, of all the 
products of all the earth, products which the employers 
cannot use; products which the workers cannot buy; 
and which cannot any longer be sold outside the trust- 
controlled territory, to the profit of those in the trust, 
and to the ruin of those not in the trust, because, at 
last, all the world will be within the grasp of the one 
international combination ^^and there are no other 
worlds to conquer!" 

181. The Collapse.— Therefore, the culmination of 
capitalism will insure its collapse, because production 
under capitalism now depends on the foreign market 
to dispose of its surplus; and the foreign market can 
last only so long as the international competitors are 
engaged in the process of destroying each other. When 



saries of life. This permanent maladjustment of purchasing and pro- 
ducing power necesarily produces an incalculable disorganization of 
industry, and profoundly increases the innate inability of the com- 
petitive system to balance supply and demand." — Macrosty: Trusts and 
the State, p. 106. 



150 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

that war is over,and foreign relief is no longer possible, 
then, as Senator Hanna correctly contends, under cap- 
italism, there is no other alternative than to lessen pro- 
duction. And this process once entered upon, can find 
no stopping place short of the complete collapse of cap- 
italism, which has itself evolved the process of its own 
destruction. 

Again, the culmination of capitalism will be its col- 
lapse, because, when the one trust has bought the earth, 
it cannot any longer re-invest its earnings. The Eocke- 
fellers alone are buying up the world's productive prop- 
erty at the rate of two millions a week, but they are 
only one large stream. All the ten thousand industrial 
and commercial currents are flowing hourly into larger 
and larger streams and will at last come to the one great 
sea. The earnings of the trusts are going to buy the 
stocks of other corporations or the certificates or bonds 
of other trusts. The whole world 's resources are being 
taxed to the uttermost to complete the purchase of the 
earth by a single syndicate. 

182. The Bankrupt Trusts.— It is sometimes said 
that the trusts are overstocked and are bound to fail. 
Corporations have been overstocked, but no ^^ crash,'' 
due to such causes, has taken us backward to the small- 
er enterprises, but always forward to the larger ones. 
Nothing could happen which would hasten the com- 
ing of the final trust more than a general financial crash 
among the trusts. At the present rate of consolidation, 
the day is not far off when a sufficient portion of the 
productive property of the world will be in the hands of 
a single combination to make that combination prac- 
tically the master of the earth. With even ten per cent, 
of the annual product of all countries available for use 
in the purchase of the rest of productive properties of 
the earth, it will be a short road which will lead to 



Chap. XI THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM 151 

the end of this means of re-investment for the earnings 
of the trust. 

183. Played to a Finish.— A handful of men cannot 
consume or waste one-third of the world's products. 
When they can neither use nor re-invest their profits, 
the uninvested profits must accumulate in the vaults in 
the same way that the unsold goods will accumulate in 
the store-houses. Having bought the earth, the end 
of the buying business, so far as productive property 
is concerned, will be at hand. Capitalism will have 
made the earth a single great machine for making 
profits, and then, because it will have already bought 
the earth, it will have no use for the larger share of the 
profits. In the game of trade, the most successful gam- 
blers of them all will have won all the stakes; will have 
cleared the table of all its ^^ counters'' and its cash; will 
have ruined all competitors; will have ^'cinched" every 
chance; will have privately marked all the cards; will 
have ^'loaded all the dice;" there will be no one either 
able to bet or willing to take any further chances in this 
^* braced game" of trade. So the game of capitalism 
will cease to be played, simply because it will have been 
played to a finish and the gamblers, for sheer lack of 
victims, ^^will adjourn for the night. "^ 

184. Compulsory Idleness.— Again, the culmination 
of capitalism will be its collapse, because the world- 
trust cannot employ the workers of the world. When 

5. "Capitalism does not, like feudalism, lead to under-production, 
and chokes in its own fat." — Kautsky: The Social Revolution, p. 89. 

"In such a competition (America against France, Germany and 
Russia for the occupation and organization of interior China) suc- 
cess can only be won by surpassing the enemy in his own method, 
or in that concentration which reduces waste to a minimum. Such 
a concentration might, conceivably, be effected by the growth and 
amalgamation of the great trusts until they absorb the government, 
or it might be brought about by the central corporation, called the 
gcvernment, absorbing the trusts. In either event, the result would 
be approximately the same. The Eastern and Western continents would 
be competing for the most perfect system of state socialism," — Adams: 
American Economic Supremacy, pp. 52-53, 



152 THE EVOLUTION OP CAPITALISM Part II 

the final combination has its store-honses full of goods, 
which it cannot sell, and its vaults full of profits, which 
it cannot invest; and the workers of the world shall 
depend on this one trust for employment,— a trust 
which can neither re-invest its profits nor sell its goods 
—what then? 

If capitalism is to remain, the best it can do is to 
limit production to the volume of goods which those 
in the combination can use or waste, and which will pro- 
vide an existence for the workers employed in pro- 
ducing the goods. Under capitalism, any production 
beyond this will be aimless and useless, and such a lim- 
ited production could employ only a small fraction of 
the workers of the world. What workers would be so 
employed! It has been seen in the preceding chapter 
that it would be the workers in those countries where 
raw materials are cheapest, access to the sea most di- 
rect and labor most helpless. That would mean that 
capitalism would last longest, farthest away from the 
greatest centers of the world's activity, for there raw 
materials cost most and labor is best organized. When 
the final trust comes it will collapse. It will collapse 
first where the workers are best organized and where 
society is most advanced. It will not need to collapse in 
all places in order to utterly collapse in most places. 
And the places of its earliest collapse will be in those 
countries where, when capitalism cannot any longer 
employ labor, labor will be best prepared to employ 
itself. But labor once perfectly equipped and self-em^ 
ployed anywhere will rapidly extend the new order of 
things everywhere.^ 

6. "The day of the capitalist has come, and he has made full 
use of it. To-morrow will be the day of the laborer, provided he has 
the strength and the wisdom to use his opportunities." — Gibbins: In- 
dustry in England, p. 471. 

"For this is the close of an era; we have political freedom; next 
and right away is to come social enfranchisement." — ^Kidd: Social Evo- 
lution, pp. 245-46. 



Chap. XI THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM 153 

185. The Class War.— The evolution of capitalism, 
beginning with the creation of the economic class war, 
by the earliest form of capitalism, slavery, and the con- 
tinuance of this class war under serfdom, and its full 
development and final struggle under modern capital- 
ism, argues the collapse of capitalism with equal cer- 
tainty: Through all the centuries of civilization, un- 
der the economic domination of capitalism, in its many 
forms, this bitter economic war has lasted on and on 
—barbarian against barbarian, the victor against the 
captive, the master against the slave, the lord against 
the serf, the employer against the employe,— or the 
warrior, victor, master, lord and employer against the 
warrior, captive, slave, serf and employe,— the one an 
ascending sequence of increasing power, the other a 
descending sequence of increasing servitude. Each 
succeeding relation has grown out of the preceding 
one as an economic evolution in the interest of the mas- 
ter class. 

But tomorrow the masters will be few in number. 
They will largely own the earth, but they cannot use it. 
They cannot re-invest their earnings, they cannot sell 
their goods, they cannot employ the workers and they 
will not have the force to protect the titles which they 
have secured by force. The economic class war will 
end because the evolution of capitalism under the 
domination of the master class will have created a new 
class of masters, whose growing power capitalism can- 
not prevent, and whose strength no power on earth will 
be able to withstand, and whose welfare cannot be se- 
cured, unless capitalism shall cease to be. The eco- 
nomic enfranchisement of the working class means the 
disappearance of all other economic classes, and the col- 
lapse of that age-long capitalism, based on the appro- 
priation by one class of the products of another class^ 
will be inevitable and final. 



154 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part II 

186. Benevolent Feudalism.— It is sometimes admit- 
ted that the trend of things is distinctly as is here in- 
dicated, and then it is denied that the final collapse will 
come, A new feudalism, ^'a benevolent feudalism," 
is to prevent all this. Not only has this been contended 
for, but there seem good reasons to believe that it has 
been definitely proposed and steps undertaken to re- 
alize that result/ 

It is asked if great capitalists could form a world- 
wide combination to take charge of the governments, as 
well as the industries of the earth, and could so op- 
erate the governments that they could enforce such 
industrial activities as would provide for the personal 
comfort of all the workers, and thus, by making ^Hhe 
full dinner pail" always certain, could not, then, such 
a condition of dependence between the well-fed work- 
ers and their acknowledged masters be established that 
the masters woufd provide directly for all who would 
submit to their paternal care, all that could be carried 
in a ^^ dinner pail" and starve or imprison all others, 
and then use or waste in private gardens, hunting 
grounds and personal services for the masters all the 
life values of all the people not required for the com- 
fortable support of the workers themselves. The great- 
est strength of this suggestion is in the fact that in 
the culmination of capitalism the final group of surviv- 
ing capitalists will be forced into a single combination. 
When they have made the last great bargain and have 
bargained for the world itself, that will surely include 
the governmental powers along with the rest. Then, 
why will not the surviving capitalists choose to use 
these powers of the state together with the world's re- 
sources, which the final trust will control, in order to 

7. W. T. Stead states that it was the dream of Cecil Rhodes to 
establish such an association of millionaires. He further claims that 
Mr. Rhodes had the approval of Mr. Carnegie and others for his 
proposals. 



Chap. XI THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM 155 

provide, at least, a comfortable existence for all, rather 
than consent to the universal collapse here pointed out ? 

187. Inner Circle Unable to Keep the Peace, Dis- 
guise Its Crimes or Defend Itself.— The reasons why 
this will not be done are many and conclusive. 

First. It would mean that when the final trust comes 
the capitalist ''leopards will change their spots'' and 
cease to lie in wait to destroy each other. There is no 
reason to hold that they will not continue their strife 
which will make the final trust, within the final trust, 
an ever-lessening self-destroying ''inner circle" inev- 
itable, until all shall collapse together.^ 

Second. Under the final trust, the fact of exploita- 
tion will be so clear, the exploiters will be so few, their 
victims will be so many, that compromise on any terms 
will be impossible.^ 

Third. The workers could not be made content with 
a ' ' full dinner pail. ' ' They have contended for that be- 
cause they did not have it. Give it to them and make 
its possession secure and they will make a fight for 

8. "Paradoxical as it may seem, the riches of a nation can be 
measured by the violence of the crises which they experience." — Clement 
Juglar, quoted in Burton's Crises and Depressions, p. 2. 

"In spite of the splendor of isolated achievements in the construc- 
tion of great businesses, there is some ground for saying that the 
lack of a well co-ordinated system of control makes industry resemble 
at present (1900) a mob rather than an army. Indeed, the headlong 
passion of the mob in which ©aoh stimulates the other, and because 
there is no plan things are overdone, resembles somewhat the stress of 
competition which when unrestrained ends in over-production." — Jones; 
Economic Crises, pp. 48-49. 

9. "Bad kings and governors help us, if only they are bad enough." 
— Emerson: Natural History of tlie Intellect, p. 220. 

"In the trusts, freedom of competition changes into its very op- 
posite — into monopoly; and the production without any definite plaa 
of capitalistic society capitulates to the production upon a definite 
plan of the invading socialistic society. Certainly this is so far still 
to the benefit and advantage of the capitalists. But in this case the 
exploitation is so palpable that it must break down. No nation will 
put up with production conducted by trusts, with so barefaced an ex- 
ploitation of the community by a small band of dividend-mongers." — 
Engels: Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, p. 69. 

"Man casts aside his worn-out tools, but he keeps all that he has 
won by means of them." — ^Lefevre: Race and Language, p. 63. 



156 THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM Part H 

more, and now having full stomachs, will increase the 
fury of their demand as they are stronger to make de- 
mands.^^ 

It should be remembered, when the great estates in 
ancient Eome attempted to improve the lot of their 
slaves so that more slaves could be gotten by birth, 
when conquest could provide no more, how quickly the 
effort to improve the slave destroyed slavery. 

It should be remembered, when the English landlords 
found that too many serfs were taking advantage of 
their right to go, the landlords attempted to keep 
their serfs by improving the lot of the serf, how quickly 
serfdom ceased to exist. When capitalism shall once 
sincerely try to improve the lot of the workers, that will 
be the end of capitalism. 

If the final trust keeps on its way of capitalistic pro- 
duction and exploitation, it must collapse. If the final 
trust tries to keep the peace and perpetuate itself by 
offering the workers half a loaf, they will proceed to 
demand and to take possession of the whole bakery it- 
self. And, hence, again, the culmination of capitalism 
will be its own collapse. 

188. Summary.— 1. The culmination of capitalism 
will involve its collapse for the following reasons: 

(a) Capitalism depends upon a foreign market in 
which to sell its surplus products. The culmination of 
capitalism will make all markets into a single world 
market and make an end of the foreign market. 

(b) Capitalism depends for the investment of its 
profits upon larger and larger purchases of the world's 

10. "The mere fact of satisfying wants or leaving them unsatis- 
fied is one of the principal causes of their development, change in 
character, or complete suppression. Many wants, if regularly satis- 
fied, tend to increase in strength. There are also many which, if left 
unsatisfied will diminish in intensity; and some wilr die out entirely. 
The desire for works of art is strengthened by the study of art. The 
desire for knowledge is increased by its acquisition," — Osborne: Prin- 
ciples of Economics, pp. 12-13, 



Chap. XI THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM 157 

productive property. The culmination of capitalism 
will come when the final trust shall have bought a con- 
trolling interest in the earth. The profits cannot then 
be re-invested, and the profit system must collapse. 

(c) Capitalism can continue only so long as the 
workers shall continue to consent to its existence. The 
culmination of capitalism will make impossible any ra- 
tional provision for the existence of the working class 
under capitalism. Without the consent of the working 
class, capitalism must collapse. 

2. The creation of a benevolent feudalism as the 
culmination of capitalism will be impossible, and for the 
following reasons : 

(a) Because the struggle for mastery among the 
masters will continue until all collapse. 

(b) Because of the impossibility of longer conceal- 
ing the infamous nature of capitalistic exploitation 
from the knowledge of those exploited. 

(c) Because to grant satisfaction to the present de- 
sires of the workers will create new demands, with add- 
ed power to enforce them, until they will have demand- 
ed and obtained all there is of the earth and its re- 
sources for all mankind. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What is the principal reason why any one country cannot dis- 
pose of all of its staple products at home? 

2. What must happen to the producers of other countries whenever 
a new country wins the trade of the world-market? 

3. When a single combination shall own the industries of all coun- 
tries, where, then, can a foreign market be found for the surplus prod- 
ucts of any country? 

4. When the world-trust has bought the world, where, then, will 
it make further investments of its earnings? 

5. Will the world-trust be able to provide work for all? 

6. Will the handful of private owners of the earth be able to 
protect their titles? 

7. Why not a benevolent feudalism? 



CHAPTEE XII 

A SUMMARY OP PART SECOND 

189. 1. The early forms of capitalism began when 
slavery began. 

2. Slavery was the result of the wars of the later 
days of barbarism. 

3. Slavery was abandoned by the masters for serf- 
dom when that was found to be the more profitable 
form of servile toil. 

4. Serfdom was changed to the wage system by the 
masters ; and the serfs who were evicted from the feudal 
estates became wage-workers in the rising factory towns. 

5. The workers who remained in the country grew 
into self-employing workers, only to have their self- 
employment made impossible by the later developments 
of capitalism. 

6. The era of invention came as the result of the self- 
employment in the free cities of Europe and on the 
American frontier. 

7. The new machinery made joint ownership, joint 
labor and the larger market inevitable; and joint own- 
ership grew into the corporation. 

8. Competing corporations, both by the destruc- 
tion of the weaker competitors and by the combina- 

158 



Chap. XI SUMMARY 159 

tion of the stronger ones, as the only means of escape 
from mutual destruction by competition, created the 
trust. 

9. The trust found it necessary either to combine 
with, or to destroy, all competitors selling in the same 
market. 

10. The market was made a world-market by manu- 
facturers in all countries seeking to sell in other coun- 
tries the surplus of their products, —that is, what they 
produced in excess of what the capitalists could use and 
what the wages of the workers could buy. 

11. The trust becomes a world-trust striving to com- 
bine with, or to destroy, all competitors selling in the 
world-market. 

12. The trust is unable to re-invest its earnings in 
its own business, and so must re-invest in other lines 
until all lines of business are brought within the control 
of a single trust. 

13. The trust, becoming a world-trust, can then find 
no market foreign to its own territory, for then all 
territory will be trust territory, and hence must lose 
its foreign market for surplus products. 

14. The trust, controlling all industries in all coun- 
tries, cannot employ all labor, because its only market 
will be what the capitalists can use and what the wages 
of the workers can buy. 

15. As this will leave unsold the surplus which the 
workers produce and cannot buy, a constantly and rap- 
idly increasing portion of the workers must lose em- 
ployment. 

16. The culmination of capitalism is in the world- 
trust. 

17. The surplus goods of the trust cannot then be 
sold, the profits of the trust cannot then be re-invested, 
and the workers of the world cannot then be employed. 

18. The culmination of capitalism is its collapse. 



PART III 

THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM 



CHAPTEE XIII 

COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY AND EQUATJTY 

190. Capitalism Not the Invention of Capitalists.— 
In the discussion of the origin and development of cap- 
italism, the reader will notice that the discussion has 
been entirely devoted to the consideration of social 
and economic forces. Individuals have not been con- 
sidered. It would be quite possible to give an account 
of the development of capitalism in which the names of 
famous inventors, discoverers, or captains of industry 
would be largely considered, but such a discussion 
would be very misleading, because it would leave the 
impression that these men had created capitalism and 
not that the social and economic forces, by the long and 
constant evolution which we have followed, have cre- 
ated the economic conditions which have made both 
capitalism and the capitalists. 

191. Socialism Not the Invention of Socialists.— In 
the same way, any study of the origin and development 
of Socialism which gives attention to the consideration 

160 



Chap. XIII COLLECTiViSM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 161 

of the persons who have discovered the truths or have 
formulated the statement of the truths which the So- 
cialists teach, will mislead the student, and in spite of 
himself, leave with him the impression that Socialism 
is the invention or contrivance of some great mind, the 
child of some great genius, and that the student of So- 
cialism is simply the student, not of social forces, but 
of the sayings and doings of distinguished Socialists.^ 

192. Underlying Principles.— Socialism proposes 
Collective Ownership, Democratic Management and 
Equal Opportunity in the collectively used means of 
producing the means of life. The three great principles 
which underlie the Socialist proposals are: Collectiv- 
ism, Democracy, and Equality. If. we are to under- 
stand the origin and development of Socialism, we 
must find the beginnings and trace the growth of the 
social forces which are making certain the coming tri- 
umph of these principles as related to the whole life 
of man, but especially as related to the overthrow of 
the corresponding wrongs of monopoly, tyranny and 
inequality of opportunity. These wrongs have grown 
with the growth of capitalism, are the central fea- 
tures of capitalism and can disappear from the life of 
man only by the disappearance of capitalism. 

193. Inherent in the Nature of Things.— Collectiv- 
ism, Democracy and Equality are inherent in the nat- 
ural and necessary relations of human existence. Wher- 
ever monopoly has overthrown Collectivism, wherever 
tyranny has succeeded Democracy, wherever inequality 
has usurped the place of Equality of Opportunity, it 

1. There are a number of valuable works which deal largely with 
the biographies of distinguished Socialists, accounts of their activities 
in agitation and organization, and which will be of great interest to 
the student, among which are: 

Liebknecht: Karl Marx. 

Morris Hillquit: History of Socialism in the United States. 

Kirkup: A History of Socialism. 

Ely: French and German Socialism in Modern Times. 

Rae: Contemporary Socialism. 



162 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM ^Akt TII 

has always been with the result of the speedy degen- 
eracy of the people involved, or else, the monopoly, tyr- 
anny and inequality have, by an evolutionary process, 
in the end, through a revolutionary consummation, re- 
established Collectivism, Democracy and Equality, usu- 
ally on a firmer basis than before. This strife between 
Collectivism, Democracy and Equality, on the one hand, 
and monopoly, tyranny and inequality on the other, has 
been, and is, one of the most marked features of the 
struggle for existence.^ 
194. Collectivism in Simplest Forms of Life.— So 

2. "Burying beetles bury in ground corpses of all kinds of small 
animals. When one of them finds a corpse which it can hardly manage 
to bury itself, it calls four, six, or ten other beetles to perform the 
operation with united e^orts. 

' * * * * * ^^ * * 

"Some land-crabs of the West Indies and North America combine 
in large swarms in order to travel to the sea and to deposit therein 
their spawn; and each such migration implies concert, co-operation 
and mutual support. 

******** 

"If we take an ants' nest, we not only see that every description 
of work — rearing of progeny, foraging, building, rearing of aphides and 
so on — is performed according to the principles of voluntary mutual 
aid; we must also recognize, with Forel, that the chief, the funda- 
mental feature of the life of many species of ants is the fact and the 
obligation for every ant of sharing its food, already swallowed and 
partly digested, with every member of the community which may apply 
for it. 

"When a new swarm of bees is going to leave the hive in search 
of a new abode, a number of bees will make a preliminary exploration 
of the neighborhoood, and if they discover a convenient dwelling-place 
— say, an old basket, or anything of the kind — they will take posses- 
sion of it, and guard ife, sometimes for a whole week, till iUe swarm 
comes to settle therein. 

* * •» * «■ * * * 

"The white-tailed eagles always assemble for devouring a corpse, 
and some of them (the younger ones first) always keep watch while the 
others are eating. 

* ^s- ***** * 

"But the fishing associations of the pelicans are certainly worthy 
of notice for the remarkable order and intelligence displayed by these 
clumsy birds. They always go fishing in numerous bands, and after 
having chosen an appropriate bay, they form a wide half-circle in face 
of the shore, and narrow it by paddling towards the shore, catching all 
fish that happen to be enclosed in the circle. On narrow rivers and 
canals they even divide into two parties, each of which draws upon a 
half-circle, and both paddle to meet each other, just as if two parties 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 163 

soon as the forms of life had reached the stage where 
the segregation of new living cells which were to grow 
into new members of the species, involved the produc- 
tion of the egg and hence the propagation of new life 
involved sex relations,— so soon, in the development of 
the forms of life, only those forms could survive which 



of men dragging two long nets should advance to capture all fish taken 
between the nets when both parties come to meet. 

"Even eagles — even the powerful and terrible booted eagle, and the 
martial eagle, which is strong enough to carry away a hare or a 
young antelope in its claws — are compelled to abandon their prey 
to bands of those beggars, the kites, which give the eagle a regular chase 
as soon as they see it in possession of a good prey. The kites will 
also give chase to the swift fishing-hawk, and rob it of the fish it has 
captured; but no one ever saw the kites fighting together for the pos- 
session of the prey so stolen. 

"Take, for instance, a band of Avhite cacadoos in Australia. Be- 
fore starting to plunder a corn-field they send out a reconnoitering 
party, which occupies the highest trees in the vicinity of the field, while 
other scouts perch upon the intermediate trees between the field and the 
forest and transmit the signals. If the report runs all right, a score 
of cacadoos will separate from the bulk of the band, take a flight in the 
air, and then fly towards the trees nearest to the field. They will also 
scrutinize the neighborhood for a long while, and only then will they 
give the signal for general advance, after which the whole band starts 
at once ind plunders the field in no time. 

******** 

"Life in societies is again the rule with the large family of horses, 
which includes the wild horses and donkeys of Asia, the zebras, the 
mustangs, the cimarones of the Pampas, and the half-wild horses 
of Mongolia and Siberia. They all live in numerous associations made 
up of many studs, each of which consists of a number of mares under 
the leadership of a male. These numberless inhabitants of the Old and 
the New World, badly organized on the whole for resisting both their 
numerous enemies and the adverse conditions of climate, would soon 
have disappeared from the surface of the earth were it not for their 
sociable spirit. When a beast of prey approaches them, several studs 
unite at once; they repulse the beast and sometimes chase it; and 
neither the wolf nor the bear, not even the lion, can capture a horse or 
even a zebra as long as they are not detached from the herd. When a 
drought is burning the grass in the prairies, they gather in herds of 
sometimes 10,000 individuals strong, and migrate. And when a snow- 
storm rages in the steppes, each stud keeps close, and repairs to a pro- 
tected ravine. * * * Union is their chief arm in the struggle for 
life, and man is their chief enemy. 

» « # * * * *♦ 

"Several species (of monkeys) display the greatest solicitude for 
their wounded, and do not abandon a wounded comrade during a re- 
treat till they have ascertained that it is dead and that they are 



164 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM' Part III 

learned to co-operate, because the production of the 
fertile egg is a co-operative process. It is not contend- 
ed that all did co-operate; only, that those that did not 
co-operate could not extend their existence beyond a 
single generation. 

195. In Care of Young.— When the forms of life had 
advanced and the improved form of life had greatly 
lengthened the period of the helplessness of the new 
born, then only those forms of life could survive which 
were able to extend the parental collectivism to co- 
operation with the new born in its struggle for exist- 
ence. It is not contended that all did co-operate with 
the young, but it is evident that the neglected young 
could not survive, and hence, only those became the 



helpless to restore it to life. * * * In some species several individ- 
uals will combine to overturn a stone in order to search for ants' eggs 
under it. 



"As to beavers, which are endowed, as known, with a most sym- 
pathetic character, their astounding dams and villages, in which gen- 
erations live and die, without knowing of any enemies but the otter 
and man, so wonderfully illustrate what mutual aid can achieve for 
the security of the species, the development of social habits and the 
evolution of intelligence, that they are familiar to all interested in 
animal life. 

"Association is found in the animal world at all degrees of evolu- 
tion; * * * colonies are the very origin of evolution in the ani- 
mal kingdom. But, in proportion as we ascend the scale of evolution, 
we see association growing more and more conscious. It loses its pure- 
ly physical character, it ceases to be simply instinctive, it becomes rea- 
soned. With the higher vertebrates it is periodical, or is resorted 
to for the satisfaction of a given want — propagation of the species, mi- 
gration, hunting or mutual defense. It even becomes occasional when 
Birds associate against a robber, or mammals combine, under pressure 
of exceptional circumstances, to emigrate. In this last case, it becomes 
a voluntary deviation from habitual moods of life. The combination 
sometimes appears in two or more degrees — the family first, then the 
group, and finally the association of groups, habitually scattered, but 
uniting in ease of need, as with the bisons and other ruminants. It 
also takes higher forms, guaranteeing more independence to the individ- 
ual without depriving it of the benefits of social life. With most 
rodents the individual has its own dwelling, which it can retire to when 
it prefers being left alone; but the dwellings are laid out in villages 
and cities, so as to guarantee to all inhabitants the benefits and joys 
of social life." — Kropotkin : Mutual Aid, Chapters I., II. 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 165 

seed plant for future survivals that did so co-operate 
with their young.^ 

196. In Primitive Groups.— When, in the early 
forms of primitive life, human beings began to act in 
groups for each other and against beasts of prey and 
other and hostile groups of men, then only those who 
learned to stand together, to co-operate within and for 
the groups, were able to survive.^ It is not contended 
that all the members of all the groups did so co-operate, 
but it is evident that those groups which did not co- 
operate would be utterly destroyed in the struggle for 
existence with the groups which did so co-operate, and 
would therefore cease to be factors in the perpetua- 
tion of the race, leaving this function to those who had 
learned the lesson of co-operation, of collectivism.^ 

197. In the Nations.— As the barbarian tribes grew 
into nations, it was those nations which were best able 
to create a solidarity of national interest, those whose 
citizens learned best to co-operate with each other, and 
against the whole world without, which were best able 

3. "Observation of the most savage races agrees with the compara- 
tive study of the institutions of civilized peoples, in proving that the 
only bond of political union recognized among primitive men, or con- 
ceivable by them, was the physical fact of blood-relationship." — Fiske: 
Destiny of Man, pp. 78-79. 

4. "Only by glancing back over this history in rapid review can 
we discover whether, on the whole, we are still the primitive egoists 
that Nietzsche would approve, or sympathetic, if not always close 
and believing, followers of Count Tolstoi. 

"We must go back to that little group of blood kindred which 
was the earliest human community. A few brothers and sisters, rec- 
ognizing their maternal kinship maintained a common lair or camp, 
struggled together against beast and nature, and together obtained 
food supplies. Within that little band the competition of the Dar- 
winian struggle had, in a measure, ceased. Toward all life that lay 
beyond the circle, the rule was unrelenting war. Here, then, at 
the outset of human life, the two standards were already established* 
Helpfulness, compassion, forgiveness even, were right and expedient 
within the group. Remorseless enmity, cruelty, treachery, any ex- 
pedient was right toward those men or groups against which the band 
must struggle for its own existence." — Giddings: Democracy and Em- 
pire, p. 354. 

5. The instant society becomes organized in clans, natural selec- 
tion can not let these clans die out, — the clan becomes the chief object 



166 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Pabt in 

to survive.^ It was Collectivism within the nations 
which made them victorious over those less able to co- 
operate and so less able to survive. In the development 
of the modern nations, those most race-conscious, those 
most conscious of their class solidarity, those best able 
to co-operate, are the ones which have made themselves 
at last the joint masters of the world. 

198. In Business.— The same is true of business en- 
terprises. As capitalism has grown, its very monop- 
olies have been developed by those best able to effect 
co-operative relations among themselves. This very 
monopoly, in its final evolution, will be destroyed as 
a monopoly, by the enlargement of its own Collectivism 
to include all mankind in the benefits of this Collectiv- 



or care of natural selection, because if you destroy it you retrograde 
again, you lose all you have gained; consequently, those clans in which 
the primeval selfish instincts were so modified that their individual 
conduct would be subordinated to some extent to the needs of the 
clan, — ^those are the ones that would prevail in the struggle for life." — 
Fiske: A Century of Science, p. 110. 

"Deprive a pack of wolves of the tribal instinct that keeps them 
from rending each other, and place a single carcass before them, and 
their conduct may illustrate the economic system which would re- 
sult from the unrestrained action of selfish motives among men." — 
Clark: Philosophy of Wealth, p. 15. 

It is interesting to note that Prof. Clark finds it necessary to 
deprive the wolves of "tribal instinct" — ^that is, of Collectivism — ^be- 
fore he can safely use them to illustrate the consequences of the 
absence of Collectivism among men. 

^6. "The environment of each little tribe is (in early times) a 
congeries of neighboring hostile tribes; and the necessity of escaping 
captivity or death involves continual readiness for warfare, and the 
continual manifestation of the entire class of warlike unsocial pas- 
sions; while, on the other hand, the tribe is so small and homogeneous 
that the opportunity for the exercise of sympathetic and social feel- 
ings is confined chiefly to the conjugal and parental relations. Never- 
theless in the exercise of these feelings in these relations are ©ontained 
the germs of all subsequent social progress. While without the limited 
sphere of the tribe all is hatred, revenge, and desire to domineer, within 
the limits of the tribe there is room for the rudimentary display of such 
feelings as loyalty, gratitude, equity, family affection, personal friend- 
ship and regard for the claims of others." — Fiske: Outlines of Cosmic 
Philosophy, Vol. IL, p. 203. 

"The rise of empires, this coalescence of small groups of men into 
larger and larger political aggregates, has been the chief work of civili- 
zation when looked at from its political side." — Fiske: Destiny of Man, 
p. 85. 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 167 

ism, now of a part of the people only, and which in its 
half-grown form monopolizes, for a few, the interests 
of aU J 

Here is the general scientific truth, that in the strag- 
gle for existence throughout all forms of life, other 
things being equal, those forms of life are best able to 
survive among which Collectivism is most complete.^ 

199. Democracy.— The same is true of Democracy. 
It is inherent in the natural and necessary relations of 
human existence. It also is an important condition of 
survival in the struggle for existence. In the very 

7. "But, it will be said, competition, as a natural law, divides 
advantages, and this division should be final. To this assertion we an- 
swer, yes and no. Natural law is not to be set aside, and cannot often 
be set aside; but natural law is always to be supplemented by the law 
of reason by well-directed human and humane endeavor. Reason is it- 
self a higher natural law." — Bascom: Sociology, p. 229. 

"We need no longer call in the Socialist to testify against the 
uncurbed struggle in industry. The last twenty years have taught the 
lesson so thoroughly to our foremost business men that they are be- 
coming our instructors. Not alone with transportation, but with iron, 
with textiles, with insurance, with banking, and with many of the com- 
monest products, the um'estrained scramble of private interests is now 
seen to be intolerable. Good business now sets the limit to competi- 
tion by organizing co-operation. To check and control the excesses of 
competition has become the mark of first-class ability. A railroad 
president has been dismissed because 'he insists upon fighting other 
roads instead of working Avith them.' Acording to his own account, the 
head of another road owes his appointment to the fact that , ( in his 
own words) 'I was known to have some aptitude for working with rival 
interests'." — Brooks: Social Unrest, pp. 30-31. 

8. "Man in the rudest state in which he now exists is the most 
dominant animal that has ever appeared on this earth. He has spread 
more widely than any other highly organized form, and all others have 
yielded before him. He manifestly owes this immense superiority 
to his intellectual faculties, to his social habits, which lead him to aid 
and defend his fellows, and to his corporeal structure." 

"The small strength and speed of man, his want of natural weap- 
ons, etc., are more than counterbalanced, firstly, by his intellectual 
powers, through which he has formed for himself weapons, tools, etc.. 
though still remaining in a barbaric state, and, secondly, by his social 
qualities, which lead him to give and receive aid from his fellow men." 

"With those animals which were benefited by living in close asso- 
ciation, the individuals which took the greatest pleasure in society 
would best escape various dangers; while those that cared least for 
their comrades, and lived solitary, would perish in greater numbers." — 
Darwin: Descent of Man, Chapters IL, IV. 

"That life in societies is the most powerful weapon in the struggle 
for life, taken in its widest sense, has been illustrated by several ex- 



168 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

simplest forms of life, before sex relations had been 
evolved, when one simple cell created another, it was 
another cell which was created, fnll, complete, inde- 
pendent, fully equipped to become itself the creator of 
other cells. No other kind of cells could survive. 

200. In an Organism.— When cells began to special- 
ize so that finally one set of cells grew into an eye, and 
another into an arm, each set of cells grew into a real 
organ, with its own necessary functions, a real and liv- 

amples on the foregoing pages, and could be illustrated by any amount 
of evidence, if further evidence were required. Life in societies en- 
ables the feeblest insects, the feeblest birds, and the feeblest mammals 
to resist, or to protect themselves from the most terrible birds and 
beasts of prey; it permits longevity; it enables the species to rear 
its progeny with the least waste of energy and to maintain its num- 
bers albeit at a very slow birth-rate; it enables the gregarious animals 
to migrate in search of new abodes. Therefore, while fully admitting 
that force, swiftness, protective colors, cunningness, and endurance to 
hunger and cold, which are mentioned by Darwin and Wallace, are so 
many qualities making the individual, or the species, the fittest under 
certain circumstances, we maintain that under any circumstances 
sociability is the greatest advantage in the struggle for life. Those 
species which willingly or unwillingly abandon it are doomed to decay; 
while those animals which know best how to combine have the great- 
est chances of survival and of further evolution, although they may 
be inferior to others in each of the faculties enumerated by Darwin 
and Wallace, save the intellectual faculty. The highest vertebrates 
and especially mankind are the best proof of this assertion. As to the 
intellectual faculty, while every Darwinist will agree with Darwin 
that it is the most powerful arm in the struggle for life, and the most 
powerful factor of further evolution, he also will admit that intelli- 
gence is an eminently social faculty. Language, imitation and ac- 
cumulated experience are so many elements of growing intelligence 
of which the unsociable animal is deprived. Therefore we find, at the 
top of each class of animals, the ants, the parrots, and the monkeys, 
all combining the greatest sociability with the highest development 
of intelligence. The fittest are thus the most sociable animals, and 
sociability appears as the chief factor of evolution, both directly by 
securing the well-being of the species while diminshing the waste of 
energy, and indirectly, by favoring the growth of intelligence. 

"Moreover, it is evident that life in societies would be utterly 
impossible without corresponding development of social feelings, and, 
especially, of a certain collective sense of justice growing to become 
a habit. If every individual were constantly abusing its personal 
advantages without the others interfering in favor of the wronged, 
no society-life would be possible. And feelings of justice develop, 
more or less, with all gregarious animals. * * * Sociability thus 
puts a limit to physical struggle, and leaves room for the develop- 
ment of better moral feelings. * * * In short, neither the crush- 
ing powers of the centralized state nor the teachings of mutual 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 16& 

ing part of the living whole. When it lost these neces- 
sary relations to the whole, it did not survive; or at 
most remained only as a rudimentary survival, 

201. In Reproduction.— When the functions of re- 
production were specialized and Collectivism between 
parents could alone perpetuate the species, the indi- 
vidual was still preserved. Each new life was a real 
part of the real life of -the species ; that is, each new life 
must be fully equipped with its own complete organ- 
ism, independent from all other life as an individual 
and able to co-operate with other individuals like itself, 
else it could not survive ; that is, it could not be a link 
in the surviving chain. 

202. Unanimous Agreement.— When Collectivism 
had produced the tribes, they were collections of in- 
dividuals, not the full grown individuals of the future, 
but real individuals none the less. Each had his share 



hatred and pitiless struggle which came, adorned with the attri- 
butes of science, from obliging philosophers and sociologists, could 
weed out the feeling of human solidarity deeply lodged in men's 
understanding and heart, because it has been nurtured by all pre- 
ceding evolution. What was the outcome of evolution since its 
earliest stages cannot be overpowered by one of the aspects of that 
same evolution. And the need of mutual aid and support which had 
lately taken refuge in the narrow circle of the family, or the slum 
neighbors, in the village, or the secret union of workers, reasserts it- 
self again, even in our modern society, and claims its rights to be, 
as it always has been, the chief leader towards further progress. 
* * * In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of 
species live in societies, and that they find in association the best 
arms for the struggle for life; understood, of course, in its wide 
Darwinian sense — not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, 
but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavorable to the 
species. The animal species, in which individual struggle has been 
reduced to its narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid hag^ 
attained the greatest development, are invariably the most numer- 
ous, the most prosperous, and the most open for further progress. 
The mutual protection which is obtained in this case, the possibility 
of attaining old age and accumulating experience, the higher intel- 
lectual development, and the further growth of sociable habits, secure 
the maintenance of the species, its extension, and its further pro- 
gressive evolution. The unsociable species, on the contrary, are 
doomed to decay." — Kropotkin: Mutual Aid — ^A Factor of Evolution, 
pp. 30-31, 57**59, 292. 



170 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

in the ruling of the tribe, as well as his share in its de- 
fense. In fact, for a thousand centuries the early 
groups were controlled by unanimous agreement, not 
even by a majority vote. The modern jury trial and 
its requirement of unanimous agreement is a barbarian 
survival still telling the story of both the fact and 
the form of the oldest Democracies. 

203. Democratic Armies.— When the victorious 
tribes became the masters of the world and so es- 
tablished the nations of antiquity, they long retained 
their earlier Democracies at home. Their Collectivism 
finally perished when the Democracies within had been 
utterly destroyed. The soldier who knew he was fight- 
ing for his rations only has never been able to with- 
stand the soldier who believed he was fighting for him- 
self, or for a country whose interests he had been able 
to so identify with his own that he would give to the 
uttermost his life for its cause. The soldiers of the 
American Eevolution and of the Second War with 
England and the Boers in the recent African War are 
illustrations of this truth. Napoleon's soldiers had 
been made unconquerable in their war for the liberty 
of France, before they became, under his command, the 
conquerors of Europe. In this connection it is a sig- 
nificant fact that as the nations of antiquity succeeded 
each other as world powers, the old and failing power 
was always the one farthest from barbarism, and hence 
farthest from primitive democratic Collectivism, while 
the conquering new power was always the one nearest 
to barbarism, and hence, preserved in its own life more 
of the primitive democratic Collectivism. It was said 
of Xenophon's army that any man of his famous Ten 
Thousand was qualified to take command. No wonder 
they could cut their way through the ranks of the 
countless Persian soldiers among whom long cen- 
turies of absolutism had destroyed self-possession, and 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 171 

hence, the power of initiative and of self-direction. 
The vigorous democratic Collectivism of the ten thou- 
sand Greeks was too powerful for the helpless victims 
of the tyranny and monopoly of the despotic East. At 
Syracuse, two hundred years later, the relation was 
reversed. Monopoly, tyranny and inequality were then 
the heritage of the Greeks, the fruits of Alexandrian 
militarism. The victorious Eomans were still the sol- 
diers of the Eepuhlic— hoasting that ^^To be a Eoman 
was to be greater than a king. ' ' 

204. Collectivism and Democracy.— Collectivism 
without Democracy is not Socialism. Democracy with- 
out Collectivism is not Socialism. Democratic Col- 
lectivism is inherent in the nature of things. Both Col- 
lectivism and Democracy are fundamental factors in 
the construction of the proposals of the Socialists. 
There is no whole, composed of parts, which is able 
to stand in the struggle for existence unless the whole- 
ness of each part is complete in its place and in the 
performance of its own special functions. 

This, then, is the general scientific truth, that, in the 
struggle for existence, other things being equal, that 
Collectivism is most effective within which Democracy 
is most complete. 

205. Equality.— The same is true of Equality. It 
too is inherent in the nature of things. In no com- 
plex organism are all the organs alike. In all such 
organisms, each organ is equally a part of the whole, 
and no one of them may say to another, ^'I have no 
need of thee. ' ' All are essential, all are fed by the same 
processes, all perform some certain task, or when any 
one shall fail in this, or new conditions no longer need 
its service, then the useless organ is ruthlessly elim- 
inated. Only in the social organism and under a vio- 
lation of natural and necessary relations of healthful 



172 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Pabt III 

existence is an essential organ starved and a parasite 
fed at its expense. 

206. Primitive Equality.— Equality was as mucli a 
share of the primitive life of the race as was Collect- 
ivism or Democracy. There were no disfranchised 
clansmen. There were no three votes for men with 
feathers in their hair, and only one or none at all for 
others * ^ born in the same house. ' ' The primitive Dem- 
ocracy, which required the approval of all before any 
should act,in any matter which was the concern of all, 
was the recognition of the equality of the clansmen be- 
yond all question. The modern jury, which is a sur- 
vival of the ancient barbarian group, settling matters of 
dispute among them, requires still the approval— not 
the consent only— of all and of all alike. Here is Col- 
lectivism, Democracy and Equality; and here, again, is 
the general scientific truth, that, in the struggle for ex- 
istence, other things being equal, that democratic Col- 
lectivism is most likely to survive within which the 
equality of every essential part of the organism is most 
complete.^ 

207. The Just Powers of Government.— ^' All gov- 
ernments derive their just powers,'' not from the con- 
quest of those who are governed by those who govern, 
nor from the ^^ consent of the governed," obtained in 
any way whatsoever, by those who govern. *^A11 gov- 
ernments derive their just powers'' from the equal 
participation in the constant administration of the com- 
mon interests of all, by all those whose interests are so 
administered. Whatever is more than this is the usur- 



9. "The use of intelligence for the private manipulation of so- 
cial agencies does actually represent a level of social institutional 
life; and in certain great departments of human intercourse — as espe- 
cially the commercial — relatively selfish ends, as seen in personal 
competitions of wits, seem to be the highest society has yet attained. 
But as with individual growth, so here. As soon as the personal 
use of the individual's wit brings him into conflict with either ol 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 173 

pation of power and the practice of tyranny. What- 
ever is less than this is, to that extent, the failure of the 
organism ^^to function'' as an organism. 

208. The Concern of All.— Collectivism, Democracy 
and Equality, these priciples take their roots in the ani- 
mal kingdom, in the simplest forms of life. They are 
older than the race. No perfect social life is possible 
without them. It will be interesting to follow the story 
of the struggle for existence and notice how these prin- 
ciples in social life have grown in power and how the 
economic and social forces are making them the com- 
ing final, lasting masters of all life, and so finally to dis- 
place, for all time, the monopoly, tyranny and inequal- 
ity of capitalism, while they will enfranchise for all 
time all of the people in all matters which are the con- 
cern of all. 

209. Summary.— 1. Collectivism, Democracy and 
Equality are the principles which underlie the pro- 
posals of the Socialists. 

2. To study the origin and development of these 



the two necessary movements by which society gradually grows — or 
with the institutions which represent them — so soon must the indi- 
vidual be restrained. And, further, the restraint is no more an arti- 
ficial thing, an external thing in society, than it is in the individual." 
— Professor Baldwin: Social and Ethical Interpretations, pp. 542-43. 

"Human society is rapidly moving toward a state of equality 
very similar in all esesentials to that which is advocated by Socialist 
philosophers as the ideal of a genuinely Christian life. The forces 
drawing the human race to this remarkable end are the very same 
forces by which human history has been thus far wrought out. They 
are the same forces described by Darwin in his law of natural selec- 
tion. 

"Accompanying this drift to economical equality will be found 
several facts of the highest importance in the social evolution of 
man. 

"The brain of civilized woman is iscreasing in weight. Her in- 
tellect is rapidly developing a new and extraordinary capacity, and 
the ultimate end of this progress in woman will be a social state in 
which men and women will be intellectually equal, or nearly so. 

"The human population of the earth is moving with accelerat- 
ing force toward a mean, or normal, number which, when once 
reached, can never again be disturbed." — ^Lane: The Level of Social 
Motion, Preface VI. 



174 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

principles in the world ^s life is to study the evolution 
of Socialism. 

3. Collectivism exists in the simplest forms of life, 
and is the essential thing, in the struggle for existence, 
in all forms of organization. The families, the tribes, 
the nations and all business organizations are neces- 
sarily collective. 

4. Democracy exists in the simplest forms of life. 
It was the most striking characteristic of primitive 
society. 

5. Democracy within any Collectivism is essential 
to the collective strength. 

6. Equality as the basis of the Democracy within 
any Collectivism is equally essential to the collective 
strength. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Why are not the individual capitalists considered in the study 
of capitalism? 

2. Why are not the individual Socialists considered in the study 
of Socialism? 

3. What are the principles which underlie the proposals of the 
Socialists ? 

4. Trace Collectivism in the simplest forms of life. In prim- 
itive life. In the nations. In business. 

5. Trace Democracy in the same way. 

6. Trace Equality in the same way. 

7. What is the general scientific truth concerning Collectivism 
as related to the struggle for existence? 

8. What is the general scientific truth concerning Democracy 
as related to the struggle for existence? 

9. What is the general scientific truth eoneerning equality as 
as related to the struggle for existence? 



CHAPTEE XIV 

COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY AND EQUALITY (CONTINUED) 

213. Things in Common.— It is said that nowhere 
in the world, nor at any time in history, have men 
been found entirely separated from each other and in 
no way depending on any kind or degree of Collectiv- 
ism as a factor in the struggle for existence. 

Among savages, we find the early groups, with the 
common fire, the common camp, the common fishing 
and hunting grounds, and the common defense, all ad- 
ministered by common voice of all and all clansmen 
having equal responsibility, each for his share as a 
worker or as a defender, and each enjoying his equal 
rights in the common benefits of all enterprises car- 
ried on in common,— these things were characteristic 
of all savages, of all races and in all lands. 

214. Village Communities.- Under barbarism these 
same common interests and equal voice in the control 
of common interests survived. At the time of the 
passage from barbarism to civilization, the village 
community had everywhere appeared.^ In these vil- 
lage communities the common land, the common herds, 

1. Kropotkin: Mutual Aid, pp. 120-135. 
175 



176 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

the common pasturage, the village stores, the long 
houses, democratic control and equal opportunity were 
all, and invariably, characteristics of that stage of ad- 
vance of the growing life of all races and in all lands. 

215. Slave Associations.— When barbarian wars 
made slaves of the captured tribes and the victorious 
tribes grew into despotic military organizations, the 
slaves i^erpetuated their Collectivism, Democracy and 
Equality so far as secret, voluntary associations among 
slaves could accomplish that result. 

216. Ancient Trades Unions.— When militarism 
within the victorious tribes began to crowd the original 
holders from their small primitive allotments of land 
and they became free laborers, the old barbarian Col- 
lectivism, Democracy and Equality created the ancient 
labor unions, which C. Osborne Ward has so carefully 
studied and has found to have existed in all the ancient 
countries, and which cared for the sick, buried their 
dead, and defended, by common action, both in great 
strikes, and finally in the Eoman elections, their in- 
terests as workingmen. He contends that Jesus was 
a member and the chief official of a labor union ; Luke, 
the chief official of an international organization of 
physicians ; and that when the disciples of Jesus were 
directed to go out in twos and to *^take neither coat 
nor script, ' ' they were observing the universal cus- 
tom of the old ^ talking delegates" and organizers- 
called ^evangelists"— who always depended on the 
local unions of the workers for their entertainment,^ 
and further, that the relief secured by Paul from the 
brothers in Asia for the help of the brothers in Jeru- 
salem was in the regular order of the mutual aid prac- 
ticed among those ancient labor organizations. 

217. The Early Church.— These ancient slave asso- 

2. C. Osborne Ward; Ancient Lowly, Vol. II, Cha^pter IX 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 177 

ciations and these ancient labor unions had no small 
share in hastening the early triumphs of the Christian 
religion, which found, through its championship of 
the welfare of the poor and through these world-wide 
secret organizations, the opportunity for its own 
secret propaganda. By means of these organizations, 
Collectivism, Democracy and Equality were struggling 
for existence in the face of monopoly, tyranny and in- 
equality of opportunity which militarism had made 
the masters of the ancient world. 

218. The Free Cities.— When the military power of 
Rome no longer held together and protected the net- 
work of cities which made up the Eoman world, and 
these cities attempted their own reorganization, sup- 
port and defense, and grew into the free cities of 
Southern Europe, Collectivism, Democracy and Equal- 
ity immediately reappeared among them. When the 
barbarian village communities of Northern Europe, 
which were able to resist the destructive militarism, 
which built the institutions of feudalism on the ruins 
of most such villages, and so were able to preserve 
their liberty, and to grow into the industrial, self-sup- 
porting and self-defending free cities of Northern 
Europe, here, again. Collectivism, Democracy and 
Equality, inherited directly from barbarism in the 
North, and inherited indirectly through the ancient 
slave associations and trade unions in the South, 
created the mediaeval guilds. 

The members of these guilds worshiped and feasted 
together. They built and defended their cities togeth- 
er. They cared for their sick, buried their dead, taught 
trades to their young ; cared for the aged, the orphaned 
and the widowed. They improved and perfected the 
trades. They built the cathedrals. They established 
commerce. But, when the collapse of feudalism filled 
their streets with the runaway or the evicted serfs they 



178 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Pabt III 

denied to the serfs the equality of opportunity which 
they had achieved for themselves ; they excluded them 
from the privileges of their democratic Collectivism 
and so built in their midst a hateful class war,— the 
necessary result of the monopoly, tyranny and inequal- 
ity which the new conditions had brought upon them, 
—and so laid with their own hands the foundations of 
the rebellious forces, which, intriguing with tKe royal 
authorities, helped in the final overthrow of their mu- 
nicipal greatness. 

219. Fraternal Societies.— The fraternal societies 
are survivals of these ancient industrial Democracies. 
Free Masons were once real masons, without being 
either serfs or slaves. Once the apron and the trowel, 
the compass and the square were not ceremonial af- 
fairs with this ancient organization. The duties of 
the Grand Master were not social only, nor were the 
functions of the order mainly a matter of entertain- 
ment.^ It was a secret organization because all in- 
dustrial organizations were forbidden and it had to be 
secret or not at all. Through all these fraternities run 
the ideas of Collectivism, of common interests, of com- 
mon responsibilities, of common benefits, together with 
democratic management and equal rights for all the 
members of these brotherhoods. So far as they have 
fallen, in modern times, under the control of royalists 
and have become the instruments of oppression, they 
are illustrations of the capture by the exploiters of the 
organizations created by the laborers, and because so 
captured by the exploiters, used to oppress the very 
class whose collective efforts, because of collective in- 
terests, made their existence possible. The very name 
fraternity is from the ancient barbarian * 'phratry''— 
a combination of gentes effecting a wider brotherhood 
than the earlier gens and preceding, as well as lead- 

3. C» Osborne Ward; Ancient Lowly, Vol, I, P; ,124, 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 179 

ing to, the organization of the tribes under barbarism. 
That the oldest fraternities are very old may well be 
granted. There is equal reason to hold that they are 
direct barbarian survivals, having existed in some 
form, and striving as best they could to preserve the 
Collectivism, Democracy and Equality of barbarism, 
through the long centuries of monopoly, tyranny and 
inequality of captitalistic civilization. 

220. Modem Labor Unions.— The same is true of 
modern labor unions. 

When the evicted and runaway serfs became so 
numerous in the rising factory towns and competed 
so desperately against each other for the opportunity 
to be employed, that the ownership of working people, 
or the feudal settlement of workers in any particular 
place was abandoned because unprofitable, then these 
working wage-slaves,— slaves without either the mas- 
ters or the rations which slavery provided,— attempted, 
by organization, to provide for themselves, and then, 
immediately. Collectivism, Democracy and Equality re- 
appeared in these efforts to organize the workers. The 
organizations were forbidden. To organize the work- 
ers was held to be treason to the state. The early 
unions were secret, not because they wished to be, but 
because they could exist in no other way. For four 
centuries they fought for the right to be. What they 
were fighting for was Collectivism, Democracy and 
Equality within their organizations. Whatever vic- 
tories they have won have been victories for these prin- 
ciples. When they have monopolized a trade or ex- 
cluded a worker, it has not been for the sake of the 
monopoly, but because they have been unable to bring 
all the workers to the wider and wiser view. In the na- 
ture of the case it was Collectivism, Democracy and 
Eaimlity for ^hose willing to join in the struggle, or for 
none at all; 



180 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part lU 

221. Working Class Solidarity.— As the growth of 
industry has advanced; as the sharp lines of the trades 
have been broken down through the introduction of 
machinery; as the importance and power of the un- 
skilled workers have grown, the labor unions are daily 
recognizing more and more that the deliverance must 
be for all workers, or for none at all. The efforts of 
all the unions to develop the solidarity of the working 
class; the contention of the Socialists that the class- 
conscious worker only will be able to fight effectively 
the battles of the working class are not suggestions 
contrary to the inherent, natural and necessary rela- 
tions of the workers to each other and to the future of 
the whole race. They are simply true and instinctive 
expressions of relations which it is as impossible to 
conceive of as not existing^ under capitalism, as it is 
to think of a square circle or a four-cornered triangle. 

222. Monopoly.— Capitalism is the Collectivism of 
a part to monopolize the just inheritance of all.^ There 
is no possible way by which this monopoly can be 
destroyed except the Collectivism of all be made to 
take the place of the Collectivism of a part. This is 
not true because any one has said it is true. This is 
true because it is true, because, if some part is not to 
control, then the whole must. New mathematical re- 
lations must be put into the nature of things or this 
must be true and remain true.^ 

4. "Before economic competition had divided men into classes 
according to their financial capacity, all craftsmen possessed cap- 
ital as all agriculturists held land. The guild established the 
craftsman's social status; as a member of a trade corporation he 
was governed by regulations fixing the number of hands he might 
employ, the amount of goods he might produce, and the quality of 
his workmanship; on the other hand the guild regulated the market, 
and insured a demand*. Tradesmen, perhaps, did not easily grow rich, 
but they as seldom became poor. 

"With centralization, life changed. Competition sifted the strong 
from the weak; the former waxed wealthy, and hired hands at 
wages, the latter lost all but the ability to labor; and when the 
corporate body of producers had thus disintegrated, nothing stood be- 
tween the common property and the men who controlled the engine of 
the law." — Adams: Law of Civilization and Decay, pp. 259-60. 

5. "The persistence of Trade Unionism, and its growing powei 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 181 

223. The Whole Is Greater Than Any of Its Parts.— 
Industrial change must be to dethrone one part in 
order to enthrone another part, or it must be to de- 
throne no part, but instead to enthrone all parts, and 
hence the whole. Every departure from monopoly 
must be towards Collectivism. Every departure from 
tyranny must be towards Democracy. Every depar- 
ture from inequality must be toward Equality, or the 
reverse.^ Every departure from Collectivism, Democ- 
racy and Equality must be towards monopoly, tyranny 
and inequality. The great principles which underlie 
the proposals of the Socialists are Collectivism, Democ- 
racy and Equality. These principles were not invent- 
ed. They are not ingenious schemes suggested by some 

in the state, indicates, to begin with, that the very conception of 
democracy will have to be widened, so as to include economic as 
well as political relations. The framers of the United States con- 
stitution, like the various parties in the French Revolution of 1789, 
saw no resemblance or analogy between the personal power which 
they drove from the castle, the altar, and the throne, and that which 
they left unchecked in the farm, the factory, and the mine. Even 
at the present day, after a century of revolution, the great mass "of 
middle and upper-class 'Liberals' all over the world see no more 
inconsistency between democracy and unrestrained capitalist enter- 
prise than Washington or Jefferson did between democracy and slave- 
holding. The 'dim inarticulate multitude' of manual-working wage- 
earners have, from the outset, felt their way to a different view. 
To them, the uncontrolled power wielded by the owners of pro- 
duction, able to withhold from the manual-worker all chance of sub- 
sistence unless he accepted their terms, meant a far more genuine 
loss of liberty and a far keener sense of the personal subjection 
than the official jurisdiction of the magistrate or the far-off, im- 
palpable rule of the king. The captains of industry, like the kings 
of gore, are honestly unable to understand why their personal power 
should be interfered with, and kings and captains alike have never 
found any difficulty in demonstrating that its maintenance was in- 
dispensable to society. Against this autocracy in industry the manual- 
workers have, during the century, increasingly made good their 
protest." — Webb: Industrial Democracy, Vol. II, pp. 840-41. 

6. "Wealth owes its advantages in production largely to fore- 
cast, combination and tacit concert. Nothing can be more unreason- 
able than to resent the same tendency in the working classes, and 
that because it takes them, as mere waifs, out of the stream of 
traffic. These combinations (of labor) are not to be judged by 
their earlier efforts, or by their mistakes alone, but by their di- 
rection of growth and the spirit called out by them. It is one of 
the highest achievements of our time that workmen are learning to 
think, combine, resist, aid." — Bascom: Sociology, p. 230. 



182 TME EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

dreamer of dreams. They are simply the conditions of 
healthful, normal, progressive existence inherent in 
the unavoidable relations of human life. These princi- 
ples cannot prevail in the whole life of man while 
monopoly, tyranny and inequality of opportunity re- 
main in the workshop and in the market place. 

224.— Sanitary Conditions.— The fight for Socialism 
is simply a fight for sanitary social conditions.''^ The 
fight for capitalism is a fight for unsanitary social con- 
ditions,— conditions which mean death to the simplest 
organisms, conditions which, should they supplant Col- 
lectivism in nature, all life must cease; conditions 
which, had they prevailed in primitive society, the ear- 
ly man must have fallen the helpless prey of beasts 
too fierce for his single-handed resistance; conditions 
which, had they prevailed among barbarians, the tribes 
and nations never could have been; conditions which, 
whenever they have prevailed, have enslaved the many 
and made degenerates of the few.^ Capitalism is a 
temporary departure from a general condition of san- 
itary social life, with the final result that in its cul- 
mination, sanitary conditions may be re-established in 

7. "The individual will always make himself felt. This cor- 
responds probably to reality, for with social self-consciousness, not 
only does environment modify society, but society modifies environ- 
ment with a set purpose in view." — Mayo-Smith: Statistics and So- 
ciology, p. 382. 

8. "It is beyond question that the progress of mankind does 
depend upon the progressive conformity of the order of their con- 
ceptions to the order of phenomena; but after the inquiry con- 
tained in the preceding chapter I believe no further proof is nec- 
essary to convince us that the progress of manl<:ind also depends 
upon the conformity of their desires to the requirements arising 
from their aggregation in communities. If civilization is a process 
of intellectual adaptation, it is also a process of moral adaptation; 
and the latter I believe to be the more fundamental of the two. 
The case is well stated by Mr. Spencer in the following passage: 
'Ideas do not govern the world; the world is governed by feelings, 
to which ideas serve only as guides. The social mechanism does 
not rest finally upon opinions; but almost wholly upon character. 
* * * All social phenomena are produced by the totality of human 
emotions and beliefs; of which^ the emotions are mainly pre-deter- 
mined, while the beliefs are mainly post-determined. Men's desires 



Chap. XIII COLLECTIVISM, DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY 183 

a wider field than ever before,— either that, or capital- 
ism is a social disorder, a baneful disease, a loathsome 
contagion, slaying its millions but rendering no serv- 
ice in the long progress of the race. In either case, if 
it is a disease, it has run its course; a return to nor- 
mal conditions means the coming of Socialism; if it 
is a temporary departure with the result of ultimately 
creating conditions wherein Collectivism, Democracy 
and Equality will come again and more fully than 
ever before, then it has accomplished its mission and 
should now give place in order that its own harvest 
may be gathered.^ 

225. Conclusions.— In seeking the origin of Social- 
ism, the fundamental principles. Collectivism, Democ- 
racy and Equality, which underlie the Socialist pro- 
posals, are found to be inherent in the life of man. 
They condition his healthful existence. They equip 
him for the struggle for existence. They are infinitely 
older than the monopoly, tyranny and inequality of 
capitalism. These principles once obeyed will establish 
correct sanitary social conditions. 

226. Summary.— 1. Collectivism, Democracy and 
Equality are found to have existed among the bar- 
barian tribes. 

2. They survived through voluntary associations 
among the slaves after they had been abandoned by 
the masters. 



are eliiefly inherited but their beliefs are chiefly acquired, and de- 
pend upon surrounding conditions; and the most important sur- 
rounding conditions depend upon the social state which the prevalent 
desires have produced. The social state at any time existing is the 
resultant of all the ambitions, self-interest, fears, reverences, indig- 
nations, sympathies, etc., of ancestral citizens and existing citizens." 
— Fiske: Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, Vol. II, p. 242. 

9. "Even if we regard the socialistic views as erroneous and 
demoralizing, the fact remains that they are held to a greater or 
less extent by a large number of p|3ople — perhaps a majority of the 
voters in the U. S." — President Hadley (Yale) : Education of an 
American Citizen, p. 58. 



184 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part IH 

3. They characterized the ancient trades unions. 

4. They were characteristic of the early Christian 
church. 

5. They were features of the early forms of the 
free cities of Europe, coming either directly from bar- 
barism in the North or indirectly through the associa- 
tions of the slaves in the South. 

6. The oldest fraternal societies are survivals of old 
industrial Democracies. 

7. Modern trades unions are striving to establish 
the same ideals. 

8. The war of monopoly, tyranny and inequality 
against Collectivism, Democracy and Equality, is the 
war between capitalism and Socialism. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Carefully identify and discuss Collectivism, Democracy and 
Equality in all of the following: — 

( 1 ) Savage and barbarian groups. 

(2) The village communities. 

(3) The ancient slave association. 

(4) The early Christian church. 

(5) The free cities. 

(6) The guilds. 

(7) Fraternal societies. 

(8) Modern trades unions. 

2. Can individuals deliver themselves from the conditions of the 
working class? 

3. Why are monopoly, tyranny and inequality unsanitary socia] 
conditions ? 

4. Whence the origin of Socialism? 



CHAPTER XV 

COLLECTIVISM IN THE OWNERSHIP OF THE EARTH 

227. Belongs to Man.— It is admitted that the earth 
belongs to man. No other animal is able to dispute his 
claim. But most men live and die with no legal claim 
to the earth or to any share of it. Does the earth be- 
long to all men or to only a part of them? Does Col- 
lectivism or monopoly justly claim the right to rule in 
the matter of the ownership of the earth? 

228. Belongs to All Men.— There is no possible the- 
ory of the earth's origin which does not argue for Col- 
lectivism and against monopoly, in favor of ownership 
by all and not by any part. 

229. The Biblical Authority.— If it is claimed that, 
the Biblical story of creation is a literal, detailed state- 
ment of the earth's origin, then those who hold to 
this view are bound to admit the force of the declara- 
tions of the same authority concerning the use of the 
earth. God said, *^Let us make man in our image, after 
our likeness ; and let them have dominion over the fish 
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping 
thing that creepeth upon the earth.''— (Gen. 1:26). 
Only man was exempt from the dominion of men. 

185 



186 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

All men were to have dominion alike, for ^^ There is 
no respect of persons with God/'— (2 Chr. 19:7; Eom. 
2:11; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25). And lest any should be- 
come the masters of others He declared '^The land 
shall not be sold forever."— (Lev. 25:23). And when 
His chosen people had ignored these principles and 
poverty and oppression had followed, He said again: 
*^Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field 
to field, till there be no room, and y^e be made to dwell 
alone (without land) in the midst of the land."— Is. 
5:8). 

These passages settle forever for those who hold to 
these authorities the question of ownership in favor of 
all the people. 

230. The Scientific Defense.— If it is claimed that 
the earth is simply the product uf natural forces, that 
is, that it is the result of the operation of forces still 
seen to be in operation, and that all questions of one 's 
claims to the earth must be settled as the result of 
conclusions drawn from a study of the operation of 
these natural forces, then it is equally impossible to 
find any support for private monopoly in the owner- 
ship of what nature has so clearly provided for all. 

231. The Monopolist and Nature.— In order to un- 
derstand how utterly absurd the monopolist of natural 
resources must appear in contending for his claims, as 
inherent in the nature of things, listen to the story of 
the earth's origin as told according to what is called 
the nebular hypothesis. 

232.— The Beginning,— If you will look up into the 
sky on any clear night you will see scattered along 
the path of the Milky Way vast spaces of what would 
seem to be fields of shining dust. That is what they are 
believed to be. Now the tendency of all bodies, no 
matter how great or small, is to fall together. If you 
will fill the washbowl in the bathroom and then pull 



Chap. XV THE OWNERSHIP OF THE EARTH 1S7 

the ping, or if you will take a pan full of water and 
punch a hole through the center of the bottom, you 
will notice, as the water starts toward the center of the 
bowl or pan that very soon, instead of running straight 
to the point, it starts to run around it. Why it does 
this need not be considered here any more than why 
it should start in the first place. We observe that 
things always fall toward each other and we call it grav- 
ity, but we do not understand it any better after we have 
given it a name than we did before. When a comet 
starts to fall towards the sun, instead of falling straight 
to it, the comet falls around it and goes on its way un- 
harmed. It is probably something of the same sort 
that happens in the pan or the washbowl, and this is 
the habit of falling bodies.^ 

233. The Forming of the Planets.— These great 
fields of star dust are no exception to all the rest and 
they are no sooner formed than the small particles take 
to falling towards each other and so towards a common 
center. As they fall towards and around each other, 
great bodies are formed, and great heat is created by 
the blows they give each other. They fall both around 
each other and towards a common center. Masses form 
and crash into each other and form again, and while 
the center becomes a great molten mass, the most dis- 
tant portions not only move around the center, but, 
coming up from what would constitute the poles of 
these vast, moving masses, they form into great rings 
and go on revolving as before. The rings of Saturn 
are an illustration of this stage of development. The 
rings once formed, being more massive in one place 
than in some other, form a lateral attraction so strong 
that the falling begins to follow the curved line of the 
ring's circumference until the ring grows into a ball. 

1. Shaler: Outlines of the Earth's History, pp. 33-34. 



188 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

As the ring was revolving around the center, so the ball 
continues to do so. In this way the earth's motion 
around the sun is explained. As the substance which 
composed the ball on falling towards its own center 
would fall around it, as it was falling into it, on be- 
coming a ball, would continue to revolve, as the earth 
does on its own axis. As the substance of such a ball 
would come towards its own center, the rings would 
be formed, and these, finally, would come to be balls 
and go on revolving as the rings had done. The moon 
was so formed. 

234. The Making of the Earth's Surface.— The heat 
evolved by such a movement of worlds is beyond cal- 
culation. Once at its height the creation of new heat 
ceases. Eadiation continues and the whole system be- 
gins to cool off. As the planet cools, through the pas- 
sage of the centuries, water, which before had existed 
as gases, finally appears, and then the fire and water 
fight for the mastery and the cooling goes on more rapid- 
ly. The molten mass is now cooling into fire-fused 
rocks which form the foundation of the earth. The 
water, and finally the frost, join hands to break and 
grind the surface of these rocks. The storms and the 
seas wash the smaller particles away to deposit them 
elsewhere, and through the centuries they become the 
water-laid rocks of geologic time. As the surface cools, 
the interior remains a molten mass. As the interior 
cools further and further from the surface, the interior 
must contract in bulk, leaving great earth crusts of 
unsupported surface. This surface, bearing the bur- 
den of half a world, must contract in order to find sup- 
port. In doing so the surface sinks at one place, but 
must rise at some other, and so the mountains are lifted 
up and the building of the continents begins.^ 

Forms of life appear; vegetation, rank and bound- 
less, provides the substance for the coal fields, and 

2. Shaler: p. 90. 



Chap. XV THE OWNERSHIP OF THE EARTH 189 

then the continents shift, the water overflows and sifts 
again the slow deposits of the rocks above the fields 
so overgrown, and under the pressure of the rocks and 
the slow lapse of centuries, the coal is formed.^ Great 
oceans of living forms, rich with oil, are caught and 
cornered in the world's convulsions, and the oil is 
stored away for the long centuries yet to follow.^ 

The water and the frosts are reinforced by great 
fields of ice in the grinding of the rocks and in the mak- 
ing of the soils. The earth is shaken by interior con- 
vulsions or the whole solar system sweeps into new 
fields and falls under the influence of the gravity of new 
stars and the climate changes. The ice retreats and 
the fields, made mellow by the grinding process are in- 
vaded by a thousand forms of life. The soil is covered 
with vegetation, the earth worms and their less effect- 
ive helpers mix and turn the soil and mingle it with 
the decaying vegetation and so subdue it for a higher 
use.^ 

235. The Beginning and the Ending.— At last the 
forms of life develop into the forms of man. Through 
the slow movements of a thousand centuries society 
is created. Civilizations come and go. The earth 
grows old. Hourly it is losing the heat within itself. 
Hourly the sun supplies it less. In the long movements 
of the ages it loses its heat. It seems to have lost its life 
and at last completes its circular journey to the sun. 
The sun grows cold and old, and it dies also. It loses 
its power to hold its place in the heavens, and, like a 
meteor, falls headlong through the universe. This 
and some other system of worn-out worlds crash into 
each other, and by the stroke both are reduced into star 
dust, to start once more on the endless round of the 
world's birth, growth, death, and resurrection.^ Un- 

3. Thorpe: Coal, Its History and Its Uses, pp. 1-70. 

4. Dana: Manual of Geology, p. 608. 

5. Darwin : Earthworms. 

6. Shaler: p. 42. 



190 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

der this or any other theory of the earth's origin ever 
advanced in the name of science, these movements 
are so vast, the time so approaching to eternity, the 
grip of things so infinite, that to contend that there 
is any inherent intention on the part of nature that 
some favorites among men, or some special generation 
of men, and not all men of all generations, should be 
the beneficiaries of all this, is the highest of egotistic 
absurdity. 

236. Not a Question of Intentions.— If it be said 
that to assume that nature has any intentions, either 
for the few or for the many, is equally absurd, then 
the answer is that the absurdity complained of is the 
assumption that we may study in nature some force 
unknown to nature, and that this force, unknown in 
nature, is nevertheless operating through nature, and 
has intentions beyond nature or in contradiction to the 
plainly visible operations of nature. There is here no 
such assumption or contention. Our question, in this 
connection, does not go beyond an inquiry touching 
the inherent relations vof natural forces to each other 
and the relations so discovered between man and the 
earth, both of whom are assumed to be the products 
of nature and existing subject to the laws of nature. 

237. Evolution.— The theory of evolution asserts 
that the process by which nature passes from one state 
of existence to another is * ' like that which takes place 
in the development of an ovum into a mature animal. ' ' 
Now it is insisted that the earth was not created. It 
was bom. It was not born full grown and in complete 
maturity. All of its features of landscape, of moun- 
tain and valley, of river and ocean, of land, of rocks 
and soils, of plants and animals, even its seasons and 
its climates, have been developed through countless 
ages of duration, of duration so long that a beginning 



Chap. XV THE OWNERSHIP OF THE EARTH 191 

is as unthinkable as an ending seems impossible. Dur- 
ing all this time the earth has moved out and on in 
space, by a combination of movements so complicated 
that no one can diagram her course, and with a speed 
so great that even calculation cannot measure her jour- 
ney or keep pace with her progress. 

238. Pre-conscious Development.— But the earth is 
not only related to time and to space with no end to 
one and no limit to the other, but it is instinct with 
life, with life as boundless and infinite as is the life of 
the universe itself. In the study of living organisms, 
the naturalist is never satisfied until he has discovered 
the function, that is, the use or purpose, of every sep- 
arate bone, muscle, nerve and organ, and the relation of 
each to all. What is this organ for? What end does 
this muscle serve! These questions are constantly on 
the lips of the scientists. Surely, if we may ask for 
and expect to find a purpose for each part of each 
simplest life, in the same way we may ask for and 
expect to find some answer to our question, namely: 
When man ceased to play a wholly unconscious part in 
his own evolution and commenced with conscious fore- 
sight and purpose, to provide for his own comfort, 
what then did he find to be in his own ** state of na- 
ture,'' his relations to the natural resources? Had the 
natural selection of his preconscious career put him in 
the way of Collectivism or of monopoly as the natural 
relation of the race to the earth? It has been seen that 
without Collectivism he could not have survived. It 
has been seen how this Collectivism of insects, birds and 
beasts relates itself in the same manner to the col- 
lective use of nature in their collective struggle for ex- 
istence. It has been seen that for a thousand centuries 
after unconscious, natural selection had been succeed- 
ed on the part of man by conscious, natural selection 



192 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

that it never seems to have occurred to any part of 
the race to monopolize nature's gifts to all. 

239. The Right of the Most Conscious.— Again, the 
earth must belong in nature to that manifestation of 
nature which, being most conscious, is best able to en- 
force its right to the earth and to make use of the 
earth. Man is the most conscious part of nature. He 
has achieved the mastery over the rest of nature. He 
alone can use to the best advantage all of nature. Re 
alone can use her mines, the advantages of cultiva- 
tion, the fruits of improved natural increase and me- 
chanical and chemical forces. If most things are used 
to their best advantage, if many things are used at 
all, man must use them, and he can use them to the 
best advantage only by collective use. If the natural 
resources do not belong to man, and to all men, then 
there are no natural relations between the highest cul- 
mination of natural life and the natural resources and 
natural forces which make up the environment which 
has brought to its culmination this same highest life. 

240. Man and the Rest of Nature.— If this relation 
between man and the rest of nature and the claims of 
all men on the rest of nature, which must result from 
this relation, are to be denied, then the relation of 
motherhood itself may as well be disputed and all the 
study of the relations of things, or of persons and 
things, be at once abandoned. But this study of re- 
lations cannot be abandoned. One cannot think at all 
without thinking of the relations of things or of per- 
sons and things. There are no relations more evident 
or more important than the relations of man, all men, 
to the natural resources and to the natural forces 
which have caused his existence, and on which he must 
depend for the means of life, if after having been 
brought into existence he is to continue to exist at all. 

241. The Earth and Man— The Plant and Its 



«HAP.XV THE OWNERSHIP OF THE EAUTH 19S 

Flower.— Every flowering plant exists for the sake of 
its blossoms. Every orchard tree grows for the sake 
of its fruit. Man is the best and highest product of 
nature which is known to us. All that had gone before 
him was making way for his coming. All that had 
gone before was but himself, enlarging and perfecting 
the forms of his own life. The earth and man are 
both the children of nature. They are not unrelated. 
Man is the mature animal grown from the ovum bom 
from the earth. Out of the earth and the eternal forces 
of which the earth itself is a product, man has arisen 
on the earth. In the nature of things the earth must 
be adapted to his needs,— else he could not have come 
into existence on the earth, or, being in existence, he 
could not have survived. It furnishes the materials 
for his food, the fiber for his clothing, the means for 
his shelter and the fuel for his comfort. 

242. MutHal Adaptation.— Twist the earth's posi- 
tion but a little and correct the incline of its axis 
toward the sun and the changing of the seasons would 
cease forever. The equator would then move on under 
a blazing sun that no life could endure and the great 
temperate belt, the scene of all man's great achieve- 
ments, would then become uninhabitable fields of un- 
changing ice."^ 

Open a way for the unhindered passage westward of 
the waters of the Atlantic at the Isthmus of Panama, 
and the Grulf stream would disappear. Its northern 
movement, with its burden of warmth, a thousand feet 
deep and a hundred miles wide, moving at the rate of 
four miles an hour, would no longer make the Euro- 
pean climate endurable.^ 

So twist the earth's axis or so open a passage for 
the Atlantic, and in either case, between the everlast- 

7. staler: pp. 59-63. 

8. Shaler: pp. 146-147. 



194 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

ing cold and the everlasting heat of the frigid and the 
torrid zones, then brought close together and with 
both the heat and cold greatly intensified, an nnceas- 
-ing storm of measureless fury would sweep away or 
drown all life from the narrow strip of temperate coun- 
try still left between these two extremes.^ 

By a thousand close adjustments, nature holds her 
children safely and makes man's existence possible. 
The earth is adapted to man's needs. Man is adapted 
to the earth. They are both the children of nature. 
They are the child and the grandchild of the mother 
of worlds. The earth were a barren woman, mean- 
ingless in her disappointed maternity, were it not for 
man. Man's existence is unthinkable without the 
earth. The earth is his because he must use it or he 
cannot survive. 

243. Monopoly and Collectivism.— But the nature 
of monopoly is to deny this inherent, necessary rela- 
tionship of man to the earth and to rob most men of its 
benefits. The nature of Collectivism is to enforce this 
necessary and inherent relationship between the earth 
and man and to protect the interests of all in this com- 
mon inheritance. 

244. The monopolists can find no defense in nature 
for their wrongs against the race. All nature is re- 
lated, collected, united. From ^'the stars in their 
course ' ' to the minutest fragments of floating dust, her 
grasp is as resistless as it is eternal. From the forms 
of life so simple and so fleeting that the student's 
glance through the microscope is more prolonged than 
the birth, maturity and decay of such life,— from such 
a simple life to the most prolonged and most ennobled 
life of man,— nature is bound together, is related; her 

9. Shaler: pp. 146-147. 



Chap. XV THE OWNERSHIP OF THE EARTH 195 

sequence, her order, her intelligibility, her Collectiv- 
ism is complete. 

245. The Test of Strength.— Again, if it be claimed 
that the earth's origin and man's origin on the earth 
are of no consequence and that the earth belongs to 
those who, in the struggle for existence, have been 
able to get it and that having it, they have the right 
to keep it, the answer is that the struggle for existence 
is not over, and this position, if admitted, will prove 
too much for those who hold to private monopoly in 
the ownership of the earth. If those who are able to 
take it may rightfully own it, then it only remains 
for the whole people to take it in order to own it be- 
yond dispute. More than this, if ability to take es- 
tablishes the right to own, no one will dispute that all 
of the people are stronger than any share of the peo- 
ple, and therefore the helpless few who hold the earth 
are not its rightful owners, even on the ground of the 
righteousness of might, which is the last and only de- 
fense for their betrayal of the race by the few who 
wish to exclude the many from equal access to all the 
gifts of nature.^^ 

246. Private Titles Based on Force.— Unreasonable 
as this position may seem in such a bald statement of 
the case, the fact is that all private titles to all natural 
resources do rest on no other foundation than force. It 
has been seen in Chapters Four and Five how the 
force which established the private legal titles to the 

10. *'There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagina- 
tion and engages the affections of mankind on the right of prop- 
erty; or that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and 
exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion 
of the right of any other individual in the universe. And yet there 
are very few that will give themselves the trouble to consider the 
original and foundation of this right. Pleased as we are with the 
possession, we seem afraid to look back to the means by which it 
was acquired, as if fearful of some defect in our title; or at best 
we rest satisfied with the decision of the laws in our favor, with- 
out examining the reason for authority upon which those laws havt 



196 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

land also established chattel slavery and the subjec- 
tion of woman. It has been seen how the militarism 
which established slavery and the private titles to land 
grew into world-wide despotism. The despotic po- 
litical power established by militarism has been over- 
thrown. Chattel slavery established by militarism has 
been outgrown and forbidden, but private land titles 
resting on no other defense than the same defense which 
established, perpetuated and defended both political 
despotism and chattel slavery, still remain. There is 
not an argument which can be made for the monopoly 
of land which cannot be made with equal force for 
the defense of political despotism and for the defense 
of chattel slavery. The destruction of both political 
despotism and chattel slavery, so far as their destruc- 
tion has really been accomplished, has been by the col- 
lective growth and the collective revolt of the collective 
life of the race. 

247. The End of Monopoly.— The tyranny of des- 
potism and the inequality of slavery can never be ut- 
terly destroyed so long as monopoly in the ownership 
of the natural resources is permitted to remain. The 
same militarism which destroyed primitive Collectiv- 
ism, in the use of the earth, also destroyed Democracy 
and Equality. The evolutionary process which is so 

been built. We think it enough that our title is derived by the 
grant of the former proprietor, by descent from our ancestors, or 
by the last will and testament of the dying owner; not caring to 
reflect that (accurately and strictly speaking) there is no founda- 
tion in nature or in natural law why a set of words upon parch- 
ment should convey the domain of land; why the son should have 
a right to exclude his fellow creatures from a determinate spot of 
ground because his father had done so before him; or why the 
occupier of . a particular field or of a jewel, when lying on his 
death-bed, and no longer able to maintain possession, should be en- 
titled to tell the rest of the world which of them should enjoy it 
after him. These inquiries it must be owned, would be useless and 
>en troublesome in common life. It is well if the mass of man- 
kind will obey the laws when made, without scrutinizing too nicely 
into the reasons for making them." — Blackstone: Commentaries on 
English Law, Book II., Chapter L, Section 2. 



Chap. XV THE OWNERSHIP OF THE EARTH 197 

strongly leading to the establishment of Democracy 
and Equality can never cease until, in its culmination, 
Collectivism, in the use of the earth, and in the means 
by which the earth may best be used, shall be estab- 
lished. So long as the right of one to own what another 
must use is admitted, so long men will continue the 
fight with bargains, or with bayonets, or with both, to 
secure and extend this destructive monopoly in the 
ownership of the earth. This warfare of monopoly, 
tyranny, and inequality can never be stopped except by 
Collectivism. But under Collectivism such a conflict 
would be impossible, for, under Collectivism, monopoly 
must stop at the line where the collective interest 
makes its beginning. 

248. Inherent in the Nature of Things.— Lester F. 
"Ward declares that ^^From the point of view of sen- 
tient beings, that is most natural which results in the 
greatest advantage. "^^ Until it can be shown that it 
is to *Hhe greatest advantage '^ of a living organism 
to be denied the means of providing the means of its 
own existence, monopoly in the ownership of the earth 
must be held to be, in effect, the denial of necessary 
human rights, which are inherent in the nature of 
things, under any possible, rational interpretation of 
the nature of things. Collectivism is the only alterna- 
tive. As society approaches the realization of this 
truth, Socialism becomes the self-evident necessity of 
the ripening movement of the years. The origin of So- 
cialism is in the nature of things. The development of 
Socialism is nothing else than the natural development 
of the life of the race under the dominion of natural 
law. This development is more rapid, more resistless, 
and the results more inevitable as the process of evolu- 
tion becomes more conscious, and hence more purpose- 

11. Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. II, p. 538. 



198 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

ful,— more subject to the foresight of intelligent direc- 
tion, less subject to the chances of accidental survivals. 
249. Summary.— 1. The earth belongs to all men. 

2. To those who hold to the authority of the Chris- 
tian and Jewish scriptures, the authority of these scrip- 
tures to this effect is complete. 

3. To the scientific mind, the making of the earth 
and the origin of man cannot be separated. The mo- 
nopoly of the earth by a few cannot make any such use 
of the earth as would make any satisfactory culmina- 
tion for the countless centuries of time and the vast 
movements of the worlds involved in the creation of 
both the earth and man. But the use of all the earth 
by all the people through long periods of time, while 
the great achievements of the race are effected and the 
perfection of the race-life is attained, does give a fit- 
ting climax to the long processes of the ages. 

4. The earth and man are mutually adapted to each 
other, belong together. Man cannot live without it. 
Whatever right he has to his life, he has the same right 
to the earth as the sole means by which* his life is pos- 
sible. 

5. Those who created the private titles to the earth 
created these titles and the owners continue to hold 
them solely by force. But as force is the sole founda- 
tion of private titles, no such title can be valid in the 
face of a stronger force. The private owners are be- 
coming fewer in number and weaker in power. The 
disinherited are becoming larger in number and greater 
in power. Titles based on force must finally deliver the 
earth to all of the people. 

6. Only under the collective use of the earth's re- 
sources can the earth be used to ^^the greatest advan- 
tage, ' ' which is ^ ^ most natural. ' ' 

7. Only under Socialism can this advantage of col- 
lective use, and hence the fulfillment of natural law, be 
realized. 



Chap. XV THE OWNERSHIP OF THE EARTH 199 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. If the Biblical account of the earth's origin is to be in- 
terpreted as a literal statement of facts then to whom does the 
earth belong? 

2. If the scientific account of the origin of the earth is to be 
accepted, then to whom does the earth belong? 

3. Give an accoimt of the development of the earth; of the be- 
ginning and the forming of the planets; the producing of the rings of 
Saturn; the moon; and the earth's surface. 

4. Give an account of the origin of coal, of oil, and of the 
preparation of the soil for cultivation. 

5. Does the question of the justice of man's ioint ownership 
of the earth involve the question of intentions or of conscious design 
in nature? 

6. When man first became a conscious factor in his own de- 
velopment, how did he regard himself as related to the earth? Was 
his earliest use of the earth under monopoly or Collectivism? 

7. Can man live without the earth? 

8. Has man a right to his life regardless of the consent of 
others ? 

9. Has he a right to the earth regardless of the consent of 
others ? 

10. Why has the most conscious part of the earth the right 
of mastery or ownership? 

11. Why has man a right to the earth as its final and highest 
product ? 

12. Who would be entitled to the earth under the argument of 
adaptation? 

13. Where is man's place in nature so far as nature herself 
may indicate? 

14. If the strongest are to have the earth, who will get it in 
the future? Why? 

15. What is meant by the nature of things? 

16. Why are all men entitled to the earth in the nature of 
things ? 

17. Why is the collective use of the earth necessary? 

18. Why is Socialism necessary to the collective use of the earth? 



CHAPTER XVI 

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACIES 

250. The Fall of Democracy.— Democracy once 
ruled the world in its economic interests, and through 
these, all other interests as well. This was the case 
under barbarism. When war became the chief indus- 
try, and the military master the master of the indus- 
tries, as well as of war, then despotism succeeded De- 
mocracy. Collectivism yielded to monopoly, and equal- 
ity of opportunity to inequality. The individual work- 
man no longer depended for his own existence on his 
own efforts, but first of all on the consent of his indus- 
trial master. 

251. The Struggle for Democracy.— The struggle 
for Democracy anywhere is a step towards its re-ap- 
pearance everywhere. So far as the struggle for De- 
mocracy has been effective in religious or political or- 
ganizations, these struggles have not only had their 
economic causes, but they are also having their eco- 
nomic results. 

252. Political Democracies Among Industrial Mas- 
ters.— Socialism asks for Democracy in industry. Has 
Democracy been recentl^^ tried in other fields? Has 
the tyranny of private monopoly been overthrown any- 

200 



Chap. XVI RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACIES 201 

where else in such a way as to suggest a like victory 
at the workshop and in the market place ? Heretofore 
all revolutions under the monopoly of capitalism have 
been revolutions by which some inferior class has 
sought to overthrow the authority of some superior 
class whose rule it had found unbearable. In no case 
has any successful revolution gone to the bottom and 
sought to enfranchise those who were the servants of 
the rebels, as well as to overthrow those who were their 
masters. As a result all Democracies under civiliz- 
ation have been limited in their citizenship to those 
who had been able to overthrow their masters, and 
have never extended to the field of industry in 
which these political democrats were themselves 
oppressing their industrial dependents. Nevertheless, 
the overthrow of the masters, in any event, and the 
world's ability to get along without them anywhere, 
once established, has always strengthened the claims of 
Democracy and has had the distinct effect of bringing 
nearer the coming of Socialism, under which industrial 
Democracy will dispose of the industrial masters, along 
with the utter destruction of the whole human relation- 
ship of mastery and servitude.^ 

1. "The struggle for emancipation through the exercise of leg- 
islative power, as we have said, is indispensable in conducting the 
social struggle. Those who do not possess it are condemned to per- 
petual passivity. The unique method which they employ against the 
ruling classes is aptly called the struggle for emancipation. The 
might of ideas is on their side, a significant statement which needs 
careful explanation. 

"The superior classes, as we have seen, cannot rest content with 
the fact of superiority; political relations need to be confirmed; 
might must be turned into right. It seemed simple enough for them 
to say: Let this be right. But every right has its obverse obliga- 
tion; however comprehensive, it has its limits at which obligations 
begin, the rights of those who hitherto have had none. So the 
rights of the rulers produced the rights of the ruled. The germ was 
there and it must develop. 

"But more than this; the human mind probes to the foundation 
of things seeking the principle of causation and analyzing the change 
of phenomena to find their eternal unchanging essence. Now in the 
changing phases of right the enduring principle is the idea. Thus 
rights not only lead to obligations, but also to the idea of right. 



202 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Paet III 

253. The Early Church. — The early Christian 
church came into world-wide influence so largely and 
SO rapidly because of its connections with the ancient 
labor unions and the slaves ' associations. These unions 
and associations were in every respect as fully demo- 
cratic as possible under the limitations of secrecy made 
necessary by the enmity of the government of the 



"If the obligation could be called the consequence of right in 
space, the idea was its consequence in time. Whoever asserts his 
rights cannot escape their consequences. Thus the rulers them- 
selves forge weapons with which the ruled and powerless classes 
successfully attack them and complete the natural process. The egoism 
of the powerful prepares the way for the uprising of the weak. 

"The idea of right is not a purely fanciful conception. It has 
power to influence men and can be practically applied. Men grow 
accustomed year by year to submit to rights; they use legal forms 
constantly and learn to respect rightful limitations, until finally the 
conception, the very idea, of rights pervades and controls them. In 
this way the idea of right becomes the fit weapon for those who have 
no other. 

"But its application is not simple. The legal bulwarks of the 
powerful will not yield to a simple appeal to ideas as Jericho's walls 
fell at the blast of trumpets; and, besides, the propertyless and 
powerless are unable to use such mental weapons immediately. Again 
we see the egoism of the one class promoting the social evolution of the 
whole. The bourgeoisie in the struggle, with the other property 
classes, is the first to appeal to universal human rights, to freedom 
and equality. 

"It claims to be contending, not for itself alone, but for the 
good of the whole folk. And it succeeds not without the support of 
the masses whom it flatters and to whom it discloses the resplend- 
ent goal of freedom and equality. Its might, like that of the higher 
class, is now based on right, and though for the moment what 
it has won seems to be clear gain, it has found the yoke of legal 
logic about its neck and must submit to its ideas. 

"For the lowest classes participation in the struggle was a profit- 
able experience. Even the slight amelioration of their condition 
was an advantage. It taught them many a lesson. But it is hard 
for them, relying simply on ideas, to undertake the social struggle, 
for political regulations are firmly based on the possession of 
material goods and are defended by the middle c!ass also, and 
moreover as time goes on some of their ideas prove false and inde- 
fensible. 

"But in . spite of exaggerations they are logical consequences of 
principles which the ruling class asserted in its own interest and 
from which the middle class profited, declaring them at the time to 
be universal. They cannot be wholly eradicated; they aid the strug- 
gle for the emancipation of the fourth class powerfully. They in- 
spire the masses with fanaticism and the struggle for the emanci- 
pation succeeds." — Gumplowicz: The Outlines of Sociology, pp. 148-149. 



Chap. XVI RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACIES 203 

Caesars.^ The old church was not a respecter of per- 
sons.^ It did not act in any matters of importance 
without conference and agreement with the brothers, 
and these democratic fraternities of the working people, 
lasted for at least two hundred and fifty years. These 
examples of Collectivism, of Democracy and of Equality 
were so real and far-reaching that the later military or- 
ganization of the church has been unable to utterly de- 
stroy them.^ 

254. Ecclesiastical Rebels.— Bodies of worshipers 
who did not yield to the new authorities on the develop- 
ment of the military model of church organization still 
clung to the traditions of the earlier Democracies. 

2. "Still another peculiarity of the labor organizations was 
that they were secret. All through the vista of a thousand years 
during which we know them they were strictly a secret order. This 
habit of secrecy proved of greatest value during persecutions. Being 
legalized by a law so much revered, they were seldom molested ex- 
cept when persecuted on account of their political activities. Then 
it was that their discipline of profound secrecy proved of greatest 
value. After the amalgamation of the Christians with them their 
secrecy was so great that for ages they maintained themselves in 
spite of the most searching detectives of the Roman police the world 
over; and the evangelizing agents continued the preaching of the orig- 
inal doctrines and ideas until at last they assumed the mastery and 
conquered the Roman world." — Ward: Ancient Lowly, Vol. II., p. 105. 

"Sodalicia" is one of the names applied to the ancient Roman 
labor organizations. Certain organizations within the Roman Catholic 
church are today known as "Sodalities." (Sodalis Companion.) 

"What became of all of these incomes into the eranos — (labor 
unions) ? They went to buy, in quantities and at wholesale, without 
the usual middleman and his system of selfish profits, the food for 
the common table, to which all the members had an equal demo- 
cratic right. Why not? Each, without exception, paid into a com- 
mon fund the same sum in form of periodical dues sufficient to 
keep him or her supplied with nourishment which under that sys- 
tem of the syssitoi was furnished by the society out of these in- 
pouring funds; and it had a complete set of cooks, buyers, waiters, 
and officers of every kind to carry out the system to perfection." 
Ward: Ancient Lowly, Vol. II., p. 263. 

3. "In the great community of the lovers of Christ 'bond and 
free' were alike. There was no distinction in the sight of God, none 
in the church. They recognized slavery as they recognized the tyr- 
anny of Caesar, but they put the slave, in their treatment and in their 
language, on the like footing with his owner." — Brace: Gesta 
Christa, p. 45. 

4. "It is striking that with the demand for freedom from feudal 



204 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

Except where the protesting churclies acted under the 
patronage of royal authority, as in England and in 
Germany,^ all revolts against the military authorities 
of the church have always been efforts to re-establish 
ecclesiastical Democracies. This was true of Wycliffe, 
and the Lollards, of Huss, of the Waldenses, of the 
Quakers, and of the Eussian Stundists. The Quakers 
and the Stundists carry their principles of Democracy 
back to the primitive order of unanimous agreement. 

255. The Calvinistic Churches.— John Calvin was 
the principal citizen of Geneva, which was an ancient 
free city. In later years Eousseau came from Geneva 
to Paris and wrote into his social theories what he had 
already seen in practice in his native city, together 
with its traditions of an earlier and completer Democ- 
racy. 

When Calvin helped to separate his city from the 
military organization of the church, he found his model 
for re-organization, not in the army, but in the demo- 
cratic ideals of the city of his adoption and in the 
traditions of the Democracies of the early church. In 
France, in Scotland, in Holland, in England and finally 
in America, the ecclesiastical democrats became polit- 
ical democrats as rapidly as they were able to win con- 
trol of the political power. It is impossible to over- 
estimate the influence of the Democracy of Holland on 
the English sojourners in that country who afterward 
became so largely the builders of New England's in- 



burdens is always included that for a free and elected clergy." — 
Brace; Gesta Christa, p, 234. 

5. In England the revolt against the church authorities at 
Rome was purely a political matter, led by the King of England, 
and was simply a shifting of the head of the English ecclesiastical 
authority from Rome to the English King. In Germany the princes 
were fighting the political power of Rome quite as much as was 
Luther fighting the ecclesiastical authority. Neither the English 
nor Lutheran church became democratic, because both were estab- 
lished either directly by or under the patronage of royal authorities. 



Chap. X^T RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACIES 205 

stitutions. It is clearly the case that the Democracy of 
the Calvinistic churches had no small share in support- 
ing the democratic tendencies of the American col- 
onists. 

256. The Windsor Constitution.— In Connecticut 
was established the most ideal of political Democracies. 
The frontiersmen wrote at "Windsor the first Constitu- 
tion in human history which was the instrument of cre- 
ating a new and sovereign state. In it they separated 
citizenship from church membership. They made no 
appeal to the consideration of royal grants or ecclesi- 
astical endorsements. These free men of the open 
forest admitted no power on earth more sacred than 
their own voluntary action. But this work was accom- 
plished with the help of one of those Calvinistic preach- 
ers, who, having helped to create a church without a 
bishop, proceeded to help build a state without a king. 
This preacher, Thomas Hooker, whom John Fiske con- 
tends deserves more to be called the father of American 
Democracy than any other man, held that ^ ' The choice 
of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God's 
own allowance, ' ' and that * * they who have power to ap- 
point officers and magistrates have the right also to set 
the bounds and limitations of the power and place unto 
which they call them.'' Fiske further claims that at 
the time of the American Eevolution, the state of Con- 
necticut was *'The strongest political structure of the 
continent. ' '^ 

257. American Industrial and Political Democracy. 
—Karl Marx holds that the American frontiersman 
never lost his industrial independence, secured through 
the settlement of a new country and the use of simple 
and inexpensive tools, until the time of the American 
civil war.*^ American political Democracy has never 

6 John Fiske: The Beginnings of New England, p. 127. 
7. Marx: Capital, Chapter XXXIII. 



206 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

willingly consented to the monopoly of political power. 
The political power of Jefferson, Jackson and most of 
all, of Lincoln, was the result of a direct appeal to 
this frontiersman's spirit of holding and nsing political 
power for economic advantage as the political right of 
an American citizen. 

258. Lincoln on Labor and Capital.— The discus- 
sions of Lincoln on labor and capital and his warning 
to the self-employed American workers not to lose or 
neglect to nse their political power in their own eco- 
nomic behalf, is only a part of the record of how deeply 
the right of self-government, of political Democracy, 
was appreciated and how clearly, at least, Mr. Lincoln 
could see the economic importance of political activi- 
ties by the workers in their own behalf.^ 

259. The Populist Party.— The Populist party was 
not so much an effort to save mortgaged farms as to 

8. "In these documents we find the abridgement of the existing 
right of suffrage, and the denial to the people of all rights to par- 
ticipate in the selection of public officers except the legislative, boldly 
advocated, with labored arguments to prove that large control of 
the people in government is the source of all political evil. * * * 
In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit 
raising a warning voice against this approach to returning despot- 
ism. •» * * There is one point with its connections not so hack- 
neyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention: It is an 
efi"ort to place capital upon an equal footing with, if not above, labor 
in the structure of government. * * * Labor is prior to, and 
independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and 
could never have existed if labor had not existed. Labor is the 
superior of capital, and deserves much the higher ^consideration. 
The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages a 
while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, 
then labors on his own account for a while, and at length hires an- 
other new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and 
prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and 
consequent energy, progress and improvement of condition to all. 
No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil 
up from poverty — none less inclined to take or touch aught which 
they have not honestly earned. 

"Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they 
already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to 
close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new 
disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost." 
— ^Lincoln^s Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1861. 



Chap. XVI RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACIES 207 

prevent political monopoly from forever withholding 
from the workers any effective voice in the control of 
public affairs. Its cry was against the plutocrat, not 
so much because he controlled in the market, as be- 
cause he was a political usurper; and the control of 
politics, by millions of dollars, meant to them both the 
political and economic dependence of millions of men. 

260. In no instance in all this were the economic 
proposals of the Socialists made or more than remotely 
hinted at, and yet all this was a part of the struggle for 
Democracy, and Democracy is essential to Socialism. 

261. A Shop Without a Boss.— Lyman Abbott 
claims, with good reason, ^^That when the world 
learned it could have a state without a king and a 
church without a bishop, it had taken a long step to- 
wards learning that there could be a shop without a 
boss. ''9 

262. The Plutocrat, the Democrat and Socialism.— 

The political warfare of today is widely admitted to 
be a contest between the plutocrat and the democrat. 
This war cannot last long without discovering that the 
plutocrat is all-powerful in the government because he 
is all-powerful in the market place; that the democrat, 
the workingman, the industrial slave, is helpless in 
the government because he is industrially depend- 
ent in the market place. The power of the plutocrat in 
politics has its source in the monopoly of the shop and 
the market. The workingman will never be able to 
show his power in the state unless he shall achieve his 
industrial independence in the shop and in the market. 
There can be no real Democracy anywhere until the 
means of producing the means of life come under demo- 
cratic control. Make the workers once the masters of 
their own means of producing the means of life, and 

9. Lyman Abbott: Industrial Democracy, (a lecture }« 



208 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

they will take care of Democracy everywhere else. The 
struggle for Democracy and against the masters of the 
lives of others, anywhere, is in vain, unless the masters 
of the market-place are to he overthrown. Ecclesias- 
tical and political Democracies will have heen estah- 
lished in vain unless that political power shall at last 
he used to establish industrial Democracy— which is 
Socialism. 

263. Summary.— 1. Both industrial and political 
Democracies were overthrown by the introduction of 
slavery at the beginning of civilization. 

2. Every effort to re-establish Democracy anywhere 
has been a part of the long struggle to re-establish it 
everywhere. 

3. The early church, the slave associations, the 
trades unions, the fraternities, and besides, all ecclesi- 
astical revolts, except when in the interest of political 
masters, have been efforts to re-establish Democracy. 

4. American Democracy can be largely traced to 
freedom of economic opportunity and the influences of 
the independent churches which were themselves re- 
versions to primitive Democracy. 

5. The present struggle between the political pluto- 
crat and the political democrat can never come to any 
final settlement except by the overthrow of the indus- 
trial plutocrat by the industrial democrat, which means 
the triumph of industrial Democracy— which is So- 
cialism. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. When and liow were monopoly, tyranny and inequality estab- 
lished in the world? 

2. What is meant by industrial Democracy? 

3. Has there ever been any real political Democracy without 
industrial Democracy? 

4. What other institutions were practicing Democracy at the 
time of the early church? 

5. After what model was the church afterward organized? 

6. What was characteristic of all those churches which refused 
to conform to the military model of church organization? 



Chap. XVI RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACIES 209 

7. In what cases were there church revolts which did not attempt 
to return to democratic models? 

8. Trace Calvinistic church influence in promoting American 
democratic tendencies. 

9. What was the economic foundation of the early American 
Democracy ? 

10. Quote Lincoln (Notes) and Lyman Abbott. 

11. Why is industrial Democracy necessary if political Democ- 
racy is to exist ? 



CHAPTER XVII 

MODERN SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 

264. Modern Science. 

knowledge, but it is knowledge in a particular form. 
The main facts relating to any subject must be gath- 
ered by exact observation and then arranged and 
classified in such a way as to show their relations to 
each other.^ 

The term *^ modern science" is used in this connec- 
tion as meaning knowledge so obtained by observation 
and classification. Any knowledge which may be sup- 
posed to have been obtained by intuition, or instinct, or 
revelation, or dreams, or in any other way which does 
not involve observed facts and their logical arrange- 
ment and classification, as the process by which conclu- 
sions are reached, cannot be spoken of as '^ modern 
science. ' ' 

It is the purpose of this chapter to show that, so far 
as science is related to industrial and commercial in- 
stitutions, the conclusions of modern science are in 
support of the conclusions of Socialists; and that the 
achievements in industry and commerce which have 
been made possible by the progress of modern science 
also involve the establishment of Socialism as the only 

J. Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., p. 2, 

210 __- _ 



Chap. XVII SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 211 

means by which such achievements can bring their 
benefits to the whole body of society. 

265. The Wickedness of Growth.— Formerly it was 
supposed that society was created and all its forms 
established by divine authority. The divine right of 
kings did not mean that the king alone had the right 
to rule by divine authority. It meant, as well, that all 
civil officers, judges, clerks, all priests and bishops and 
all classes based on economic advantages were also of 
divine authority, while the helpless, the disinherited 
and dispossessed were under a divine obligation to be 
contented, not to complain at their lot, but to patiently 
serve those believed to be divinely ordained to be their 
masters. 

If the institutions and usages of society were at- 
tacked by any one, the answer was that, however hard 
or seemingly cruel such institutions might seem to be, 
they were the divine order, and that whoever com- 
plained was a blasphemer, guilty of such wickedness as 
forfeited his right to live, to say nothing about his 
right to be heard. 

266. Some Old Records.— The old records give the 
stories of whole tribes pitilessly butchered by divine 
order. Those who regarded these acts as examples 
worthy to be followed have defended these particular 
acts upon the ground that, while they seem terrible to 
us, nevertheless, the God who gave life has the right to 
take it away, and in any way which to him would seem 
wisest and most effective, in order to defend or estab- 
lish institutions or nations which are to exist by divine 
authority and with divine approval. 

267. Recent Investigations.— But modern science 
has been accurately' observing the remains of the imple- 
ments, the burial places and the monuments, as well as 
tracing the origins of languages; and the institutions 
which these origins in speech and remnants of imple- 



212 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

ments, burial places and monuments reveal, have been 
found to be, in any given stage of human development, 
practically the same among all races of mankind. Not 
only was Israel commanded to exterminate its enemies, 
but all other tribes among all races of mankind in the 
same stage of development always fought under simi- 
lar instructions from their tribal gods. In many other 
particulars it has been found that the tribes, supposed 
to be acting under divine direction, developed exactly 
the same institutions, both civil and military, as were 
developed by other tribes understood to have been act- 
ing under divine condemnation. 

268. The Law of Social Growth.— The law of social 
development has been recognized by special students of 
these matters and it is now known that whatever exists 
at any particular period has been developed out of the 
institutions which previously existed, and that this is 
true of all nations, regardless of the form of religion 
adopted by any. The doctrine of the divine authority 
of kings can have no standing in the presence of mod- 
ern science, nor can any of the contentions that any of 
the institutions of modern society exist under such di- 
vine sanction as would make it sacrilegious to continue 
the process of improvement, which has been going on 
from the beginning, have further serious consideration. 

269. The Social Compact.— More than one hundred 
years ago the doctrine of divine authority of kings was 
vigorously attacked and some new basis was sought 
for on which to rest the authority of the state. The 
doctrine of the social compact or social contract was 
devised. Under this doctrine it was assumed that at 
some time or other the people in any given community, 
either in form or in effect, had come to an agreement 
that certain usages should be established, certain natu- 
ral rights surrendered, and that society should be 
organized in a certain way. With the departure of the 



Chap. XVII SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 213 

divine right of kings there came into being the conten- 
tion for the sacred obligation of contracts. In actual 
practice it came to mean that whatever exists has, in 
effect, been agreed to, and that to propose a change is 
a violation of the agreement ; it is an interference with 
the obligation of contracts.^ 

270. Taken for Granted.— Of course, it was rarely 
contended that the people living at any given time had 
themselves made such contracts; only some one who 
had lived before them had done so, and that the con- 
tract, once established by the consent of somebody, 
must forever afterwards bind the life of everybody, or 
there was a violation of contracts, and contracts must 
not be violated. It involves the absurd position that 
vested rights granted by those who are dead may not 
be denied by those who are living. 

271. ** Abrogation of Contracts.''— In the United 
States the constitution provides the manner under 
which it may be amended, but it provides further that 
any law involving the abrogation of conti*acts shall be 
void and without force. 

The Illinois Trust & Savings Bank Company of Chi- 
cago, the Rothschild institution of that city, has a 
charter which was granted to a small country bank 
prior to the adoption of the present state constitution. 
It gave the old corporation permission to deal in real 
estate, but the present constitution forbids any cor- 
poration in Illinois to do so. But the living people of 
Illinois have no authority, even by changing their con- 
stitution, to change the contracts entered into by the 
dead people of Illinois before the current constitution 
was adopted. Under the divine right of kings, to 

2. "Under no form of government is it so dangerous to erect a 
political idol as in a Democratic Republic, for once erected, it is a 
sin against the Holy Ghost to lay hands upon it." — ^Von Hoist, quoted 
in Annals of Toil, p. 199. 

"The psychologic law tends to reverse the biologic law."— -Ward: 
Psychic Factors in Civilization, p. 259. 



214 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

change social institutions was wicked; under tlie cur- 
rent idea, to change them is dishonest. 

272. New Life Must ** Abrogate' ' Old Forms.— But 
again, modern science has established that no institu- 
tions of society are the arbitrary creations of any com- 
pact or contract or bargain ever made by any group of 
men, at any time, anywhere. It is now known that 
these compacts were never established until such con- 
ditions had been reached in the growth of the race as 
made the continuance of the old forms impossible and 
the existence of the new forms inevitable. In other 
words, it was the growth of the race which made the 
contract, or the constitution, and not the constitution 
which made the growth of the race. 

When the old forms have gone out of existence and 
the new forms have come into being, it has always been 
in the midst of strife, unless the old fo];ms had grown 
so helpless that resistance on their part was impossible. 
But the new forms never made terms with the old. 
They have always taken possession in spite of the old. 
They have done so by force, if force was necessary. 

The whole story of human history has been one of 
old forms outgrown. The new forms first outgrew and 
then destroyed the older ones. These changes have 
always been in the line of industrial and social needs. 
Wherever degeneracy in public institutions has taken 
place it has always been because economic and social 
conditions have outgrown civil and political institu- 
tions, and the degeneracy has ensued as the result of 
attempting to use outgrown forms in the midst of con- 
ditions under which they could not operate. 

It is seen, therefore, that for the new forms to appear, 
in order to serve the new life already developed, is not 
dishonorable; it is no more the violation of a binding 
contract than for a living tree to continue growing 
though the dead bark about it cannot grow with it and 



Chap. XVII SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 215 

must be broken by the process. It is not infamous nor 
dishonest to abandon the old. It is the outright be- 
trayal of both the present and the future not to do so. 

273. Science— The Shackle-Breaker.— Science has 
unshackled the hands bound by the doctrine of the 
obligation of contracts. Science has unshackled the 
hands bound by the superstition which assumed the 
divine authority of the old and proclaimed the sacrilege 
of the new. Science has so rewritten civics and inter- 
preted religion as to attach both wickedness and dis- 
honor to whatever effort is made to bind the new life 
of today in the grave clothes of yesterday. 

Monopoly, tyranny and inequality have been hiding 
behind the divine right to rule and to enslave and to 
rob. Monopoly, tyranny and inequality have been hid- 
ing behind the sacredness of contracts. Modem science 
has stripped away these ancient coverings and forces 
monopoly, tyranny and inequality to justify themselves 
regardless of divine orders or of ^'contracts regularly 
signed, sealed and delivered." 

Collectivism, democracy and equality may now have 
their hearing without suffering from the charge of 
wickedness or the sneer of dishonor. By thus setting 
at liberty the mind of man to deal fearlessly with social 
problems, modern science has made a contribution of 
'ncalculable value to the development of Socialism.^ 

274. Science and Inventions.— But modern science 
has not only taken the '' blind-fold " from his eyes; it 
has furnished the tools and the methods of thinking 
which leads the student of social and economic prob- 
lems inevitably to collectivism. In mechanics, chem- 
istry and electricity, agriculture, mining, and in all 

3. "The scientific achievements of the human intellect no longer 
occur sporadically; they follow one upon another, like the organized 
and systematic conquests of a resistless army. Each new discovery 
becomes at once a powerful implement in the hands of innumerable 
workers, and each year wins over fresh regions of the universe from 
the unknown to the known." — Fiske : The Idea of God, p. 49. 



216 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

lines of manufactures, the discoveries of science bear 
an important relation to the current development of 
industry and commerce. In all these it has had a large 
share in the work which has given to us our modern 
machinery. But the modern machinery involves social 
production, the benefits of which can never come to the 
whole body of society so long as capitalism shall last. 

275. In Manufactures.— The automatic machine is 
making production more and more an automatic proc- 
ess. As each step is taken the worker becomes a less 
important factor and the machine assumes new and 
more commanding importance. 

The great steel plants maintain great laboratories, 
with most expensive equipments, and have the most 
capable chemists continually engaged in experiments, 
for the purpose of effecting improvements in the proc- 
esses of production, every one of which involves the 
establishment of industry on a larger scale, thus mak- 
ing all production more and more social production, all 
of which are steps in the growth which makes the com- 
ing of Socialism inevitable.^ 

Electricity, for example, cannot be used individu- 
ally. All of its advantages depend upon its use by 
many people at the same time. This means that with 
this social use the exercise of equal rights on the part 
of all the people in the advantages so secured cannot 
be long postponed. 

276. In Agriculture.— In agriculture the special 
training provided by the schools in agriculture has 
reached but a small percentage of the actual workers 

4. "The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, 
has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than 
have all preceding generations together. Subjection of nature's forces 
to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agricul- 
ture, steam navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole 
continents for cultivation, canalization of rivers, whole populations 
conjured out of the ground — what earlier century had even a presenti- 
ment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labor?'' 
— ^Marx and Engels: Communist Manifesto, p. 20. 



Chap. XVII SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 217 

on the land, but every such step involves larger capital 
and more perfect organization. Science cannot be 
applied to agriculture in the most effective manner, 
except agriculture shall be carried on on a larger scale 
than is possible under individual self-employment, and 
if carried on under effective organization, its benefits 
can accrue to the whole body of society only by the 
establishment of Socialism. 

277. Growing Toward Socialism.— Wherever mod- 
ern science has touched the industry and commerce of 
modern life it has shown the old methods of organiza- 
tion, the old schemes of distribution, the old forms of 
capitalistic enterprise, to be fatal to the interests of the 
whole body of the people. Each step in the advance 
of science as applied to the industry and commerce of 
the world is a nearer approach to the coming of 
Socialism. 

This is true because capitalism involves the monop- 
oly of the great achievements, and their operation 
through industrial tyranny and the creating and en^ 
forcing of conditions of great inequality. 

Socialism is hurried nearer by each step in the ad- 
vance of science, because the advantages of these 
achievements can be realized by all only under collec- 
tivism, administered by an industrial democracy, and 
with equal opportunities for all to become the users 
of the great equipments and organizations which scien- 
tific methods of production are bringing into all of the 
processes by which the means of life may be produced. 

278. Sanitary Science.— The same is true of sani- 
tary science. Sanitary conditions cannot be maintained 
on single city lots. With the departure of Spanish 
control from Havana and the application of sanitary 
science to Havana, the yellow fever departed and did 
not return. Sanitary science is conclusively establish- 
ing that contagious and infectious diseases may be 



218 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

driven off the earth if the people so will; but this can 
be undertaken in no small, individualistic way. 

Capitalism can find no sufficient reward in annual 
dividends for draining great swamps, for cleaning up 
and disinfecting whole states and for going round the 
world, if necessary, to clean out the plague spots from 
which world-wide contagion has repeatedly carried the 
plagues to the ends of the earth. 

. Sanitary science emphasizes the common life and the 
common dependence of all peoples everywhere upon 
each other, as does no other single fact known to man; 
but capitalism looking for dividends is helpless, and 
only the whole race caring for itself will be able to meet 
a problem so great and secure advantages so lasting 
as the sanitary campaign which must be undertaken in 
the near future, and which will make the business of 
the race for a generation the removal of those seeds of 
disease which every year doom to such needless 
slaughter those who cannot be defended from diph- 
^theria, typhoid, smallpox and the bubonic plague, so 
long as capitalism shall last.^ 

5. "But our problem was whether it is possible for society to 
improve itself. Society is simply a compound organism whose acts 
exhibit the resultant of all the individual forces which its members 
exert. These acts, whether individual or collective, obey fixed laws. 
Objectively viewed, society is a natural object, presenting a variety 
of complicated movements produced by a particular class of natural 
forces. The question, therefore, simply is, Can man ever control these 
forces to his advantage as he controls other, and some very compli- 
cated, natural forces? Is it true that man shall ultimately obtain 
the dominion of the whole world except himself? I regard society 
and the social forces as constituting just as much a legitimate field 
for the exercise of human ingenuity as do the various material sub- 
stances and physical forces. The latter have been investigated and 
subjugated. The former are still pursuing their wild, unbridled course. 
The latter still exist, still exhibit their indestructible dynamic tenden- 
cies, still obey the Newtonian laws of motion, still operate along 
the lines of least resistance. But man, by teleological foresight, has 
succeeded in harmonizing these lines of least resistance with those 
of greatest advantage to himself. He has winds, the waters, fire, steam ' 
and electricity do his bidding. All nature both animate and inani- 
mate, has been reduced to his service. One field alone remains un- 
subdued. One class of natural forces still remains the play of chance, 
and from it he is constantly receiving the most serious check. This 



Chap. XVII SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 219 

Not SO long as the poverty and neglect of the back 
alley remain can the child of the boulevard be secure 
from harm. Not so long as half the race goes to sleep 
each night with hunger only partly satisfied can any 
portion of the race be safe from the plagues which feed 
upon those whose vitality is of the lowest order. 

Monopoly cannot provide security, even for the mon- 
opolists, from the crimes, the disasters, and the con- 
tagions which monopolists cause for others and are 
not altogether able to escape from themselves. The 
foulest atmosphere and the disease germs, like all the 
rest of nature, are no respecters of persons. Every step 
in sanitary science is a step away from the monopoly, 
tyranny and inequality of capitalism— a drawing near- 
er of the triumph of Socialism. 

279. Science and Crime.— Science has also under- 
taken the study of crime. It has carefully investi- 
gated the cranial malformations which are character- 
istic of the various classes of criminals. It has estab- 



field is that of society itself, these unreclaimed forces are the social 
forces, of whose nature man seems to possess no knowledge, whose 
very existence he persistently ignores and which he consequently is 
powerless to control. * * * 

Again the defenders of laissez faire will object that society has 
always done better when let alone; that all efforts to improve the 
moral or material condition of society by legislation and kindred 
means have not only been inoperative, but have, in the majority of 
cases, done positive harm, often to the very cause they were intended 
to subserve. 

"If it could be proved that they had always been absolutely 
inoperative the case would, perhaps, be somewhat discouraging; but, 
if they can be shown to have had an evil effect, this is all we can 
hope or desire. For if they can do harm, then they can do something, 
and nothing is left but to make them do good. Legislation (I use the 
term in the most general sense) is nothing else but invention. It is 
an effort so to control the forces of a state as to secure the greatest 
benefits to its people. But these forces are social forces, and the 
people are the members of society. As matters now are and have 
thus far been, government, in so far as the improvement of society is 
concerned, has been to a great extent a failure. It has done good 
service in protecting the operation of the natural dynamic forces, and 
for this it should receive due credit. But it has also to be charged 
with a long account of opposition to science and oppression of aspiring 
humanity." — Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., pp. 35-37. 



220 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

lished that tlie Socialists have been mistaken in assum- 
ing that the crimes against property will utterly dis- 
appear with the coming of Socialism, but it has also 
established that when crime is not the direct result of 
bad social and economic conditions, it is the result of 
mental malformations which are themselves the result 
of inheritances from earlier social disorders. No gen- 
eration can remedy for itself the mental misfortunes 
which it has inherited from the past. These matters 
can be effected only through a series of generations in 
which each shall act, not for itself, but for its offspring. 

Under capitalism the whole force of society, so far ^ 
as related to industry and commerce, is controlled with 
a view to securing dividends in time for the next semi- 
annual settlement with the stockholders. The range 
of its activities is too narrow and the range of its mo- 
tives is too limited for so great an undertaking. Under 
Socialism, the whole industrial and commercial life of 
the world will be organized, not for immediate divi- 
dends, but for the purpose of serving the whole life of 
man; and no future will be too distant, and no problem 
too great for society to undertake, when the strength 
or purity or sanity of its children is involved.^ 

280. Conscious Selection and Desired Survivals.— 
It has been contended, however, that modern science, 



6. "The next question that naturally arises is, what special change 
takes place in the material and social conditions to render a further 
advance in civilization possible at any given point? Now, to answer 
this question aright, it is desirable, perhaps, at the outset to get a 
clear idea of what an advance in civilization really means. If, there- 
fore, we consider the various stages through which the world has 
passed in its progress from barbarism up to the present time, we 
shall find that the movement of what is called civilization has been 
along two distinct lines — ^the one an upright, vertical line; the other 
a lateral, horizontal one. The upright, vertical movement is seen in 
the gradual rise of men's ideals from that of prowess and mere brute 
force and mere brute courage, which was the ideal in the early life 
of all peoples (and still is so in the lowest savage races), up through 
the times when military strategy, cunning, and diplomacy shared with 
personal courage men's admiration, onward to the present day, when 



Chap XVII SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 221 

instead of so defending Socialism, has proven its the- 
ories false and its proposals altogether impracticable 
and impossible, because it is said modern science has 
established that the growth of the race" has been 
through an age-long struggle in which the fittest only 
has survived, and that, inasmuch as man has been made 
great and strong as he is under the law of the sur- 
vival of the fittest in the midst of the struggle for 
existence, that if this struggle shall be interfered with, 
the degeneracy of the race will necessarily be the result. 
Socialism, it is said, is an effort to provide, in de- 
fiance of the law of nature, for the survival of the un- 
fittest. But the fact is that the survival of the fittest 



the most serious sections of the most civilized nations have as their 
ideal that intellectual power, which, in its many different aspects, 
has produced all that is great and admirable in civil and national 
life. Except among the lowest savage races and the lowest class in 
civilized communities, mere physical prowess as an ideal may be said 
to have completely passed away; the military ideal, too, with all its 
accompaniments, is fast dying out ,in spite of its temporary recrudes- 
cence among some of the foremost nations, owing to material and 
political necessities; and now, mental power, in its many various 
applications, whether as practical wisdom, political sagacity, artistic, 
literary, or philosophical power, is supreme. But besides the upward 
movement which characterizes advancing civilization — the rise in 
men's ideals — we note a lateral horizontal movement as seen in the 
more equable administration of justice, the wider area for intellect, 
of knowledge, the wider extension of liberty and equality. Carrying 
with us this double movement, viz., the upward rise of Ideals and the 
lateral extension of Justice and Right — as that by which advancing 
civilization is characterized, it will be expedient, if we wish to find 
out what changes take place in the material and social conditions of 
the world to render successive advances in civilization possible, to 
follow the rule laid down in the chapter on History, and instead of 
groping blindly through the mazes of historical detail, to look rather 
for the cue to what we want in the world of today, in the full assur- 
ance that if we can discover the conditions that render progress possi- 
ble today in a world which we know and can directly inspect the same 
must have been true in the days of Moses, of Caesar, of Charlemagne- 
days that we cannot directly inspect and that we do not and can never 
really know. 

"If, then, we look fixedly into what actually takes place around 
us, we shall find that the first condition of progress and develop- 
ment, of free, unimpeded growth and expansion, whether among indi- 
viduals, classes, or nations, lies in the practical equalization of the 
Material and Social conditions under which they live." — Crozier: 
Civilization and Progress, pp. 396-97. 



222 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

does not mean the survival of the worthiest, bnt always 
the survival of the one best fitted to whatever the en- 
vironment may be, altogether regardless of the char- 
acter of the life which survives. 

The law of the survival of the fittest is not that the 
fittest is the worthiest, but only that it is best adapted 
to the conditions under which it struggles for exist- 
ence. 

281. Uncultivated Fruits.— The wild fruits are de- 
veloped under the operation of this law of natural 
selection and the survival of the best adapted— the best 
fitted to the conditions. The improved fruits have been 
developed from them, not by a violation of the law of 
the survival of the fittest, but by comprehending the 
law, and by a more complete obedience to the law, in 
such a way that the operation of the law itself has been 
able to produce the marvelous results of conscious se- 
lection as applied to the growth of fruits. 

282. Uncultivated Grains.— The same is true of im- 
proved cereals and of high grades of stock. It has not 
been by the violation of the law of the survival of the 
fittest; it has not been by attempting by chance to se- 
cure a grade of cattle which will be able to survive 
under the old environments of neglect and exposure 
and scanty food, and indiscriminate and promiscuous 
sex selection. It has been by carefully guarding all 
these points and creating an environment under which 

"In the historical period the Graeco-Latin society struggled for 
civil equality (the abolition of slavery) ; it triumphed, but it did not 
halt, because to live is to struggle; the society of the middle ages 
struggled for religious equality; it won the battle, but it did not halt; 
and at the end of the last century it struggled for political equality. 
Must it now halt and remain stationary in the present state of prog- 
ress? Today society struggles for economic equality, not for an 
absolute material equality, but for that more practical, truer equality 
of which I have already spoken. And all the evidence enables us to 
foresee with mathematical certainty that this victory will be won 
to give place to new struggles and to new ideals among our descend- 
ants." — Ferri : Socialism and Modern Science, p. 39. 



Chap. XVII SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 223 

more desirable forms would have an opportunity to 
survive that such advance has been made possible. 

283. Uncultivated Men.— Now, the same is true of 
human beings. Where capitalistic conditions prevail, 
there those are most likely to survive who are not 
troubled by conscientious scruples, who have strong 
arms, strong brains and hard hearts— conditions 
where whoever hesitates to strike hard whate 'er befall 
another will strike in vain. 

284. Conscious Selection and Socialism.— Is it not 
possible to be wise enough in the effort to obey this 
law of life, this doctrine of the survival of the fittest, 
in the midst of the struggle for existence, where men 
are involved, to so organize society that under the con- 
ditions under which all men shall live, the noble life 
may be the best fitted to such an environment and so 
at last have the chance to survive! 

In fact, the whole doctrine of the race growth under 
the struggle for existence teaches to the masses of men 
that if they are to survive at all, as free men, they will 
struggle none the less earnestly, while more effectively, 
by joining hands in using together the machinery, the 
organization, the resources of nature which singly and 
alone they cannot use, and which, jointly used, can be 
used for the benefit of all only under Socialism. 

Under Socialism all men may struggle for the attain- 
ment of intellectual and social excellences if they will. 
They can no longer rob each other of the opportunity 
to live, whether they wish to do so or not. The intel- 
ligence of one does not mean that another must be 
foolish, the strength of one that another must be weak, 
the beauty of one that another must be ugly, the art of 
one that another's possessions must be ill-formed, the 
social joy of one that another must be in distress— in 
all these the success of one is in no way the result of 
the failure of any other. 



\ 
224 THE EVOLUTION OP SOCIALISM Part III 

285. Summary.— 1. Modern science has destroyed 
the doctrine of divine authority of social institutions 
and the doctrine of the lasting obligation of any con- 
tract which is in violation of the common good. 

2. Modern science has established the fact that so- 
cial institutions are a natural growth and that to at- 
tempt to perpetuate outgrown institutions involves the 
betrayal of both the present and of the future. 

3. Modern science has made great contributions to 
the equipment and to the improved processes of pro- 
duction. These equipments and processes are of such 
a nature that the joint use of them is necessary and 
therefore make production more and more a matter of 
social and not an individual concern. 

4. Sanitary science can never complete its work 
except on a scale which cannot be undertaken under 
enterprises conducted for the profit of stockholders in 
private enterprises. 

5. The science of criminology establishes that crimes 
which are not the result of present social conditions, 
which must remain so long as capitalism lasts, are the 
result of mental conditions which can be remedied only 
by a series of generations under improved conditions 
—conditions which can come only under Socialism. 

6. The law of the survival of the fittest demands 
that social conditions shall be of such a nature that 
the worthiest to survive shall also be fitted to the con- 
ditions under which they must survive, if at all. The 
industrial and commercial conditions now are of such a 
nature that only the unscrupulous and socially un- 
worthy are best fitted to survive under them. 

7. Under socialism the struggle for existence where 
one succeeds at another's loss, will change to a strug- 
gle for a better existence in which the achievements 
of one will not depend on the loss of others. 



Chap. XVII SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM 225 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What is meant by the word "science"? 

2. What are the two points which this chapter seeks to establish? 

3. What was formerly held to be the basis of political authority? 

4. What was thought of any efiorts to improve society? 

5. How was it finally discovered that peoples supposed to be 
acting under divine authority created the same institutions as those 
supposed to be acting under divine condemnation? 

6. How has it been established that to change social forms is 
not sacrilegious? 

7. What other doctrine has succeeded to the place formerly 
held by the divine right of kings? 

8. How does the Constitution of the United States deny the 
divine right of kings theory and assert the social compact theory 
in its place ? 

9. On what ground does the Illinois Trust & Savings Company 
Bank continue to do business contrary to the provisions of the Con- 
stitution of Illinois? 

10. If contracts and constitutions do not create social changes, 
then by what forces are they created? 

11. If wickedness and dishonor do not attach to those proposing 
improvements, to whom do they attach in the times of great social 
changes ? 

12. How is modern science related to steel plants, electricity, 
agriculture and the whole field of industry as related to machinery? 

13. Why do these developments require Socialism in order that 
the benefits may be for all? 

14. Why does sanitary science require the coming of Socialism? 

15. In what way is the science of criminology related to the 
coming of Socialism? 

16. Does the law of the survival of the fittest support or oppose 
the proposals of Socialists? Why? 



CHAPTEE XVIII 

MACHINE PRODUCTION AND COLLECTIVISM 

286. Aristotle on Machinery.— Aristotle said that 
slavery could not he aholished without the destruction 
of society, unless, perhaps, some machine could he de- 
vised which could undertake the drudgery of toil. The 
era of invention has realized the suggestion of Aris- 
totle. Not some machine to take the place of the man, 
but a multitude of machines, each in its turn either tak- 
ing the place of the worker altogether, or multiplying 
his productive powers many fold, have done away 
with the last possible necessity for destructive human 
labor.^ 

287. Joint Ownership and Use.— But in the creation 
of this machinery the use of great wealth is necessary, 

1. "If every tool, when summoned, or even of its own accord, could 
do the work that befits it, just as the creations of Daedalus moved 
of themselves, or the tripods of Hephaestos went of their own accord; 
if the weavers' shuttles were to weave of themselves, then there 
would be no need of apprentices for the master workers or slaves for 
the lords." — Aristotle: Pol. A, iv., 4. 

"The power capable of being exerted by the steam engines of the 
world in existence and working in the year 1887 has been estimated 
by the Bureau of Statistics at Berlin as equivalent to that of 200,000,- 
000 horses, representing approximately 1,000,000,000, or at least three 
times the working population of the earth, whose total number of 
inhabitants is probably 1,460,000,000. The application and use of 
steam up to date ( 1889 ) has accordingly more than trebled man's 
working power, and by enabling him to economize his physical 

226 



Chap. XVIII MACHINE PRODUCTION 227 

and, as has been seen in Chapter IX., this great wealth 
has been provided by the joint possessions or savings 
of many people. The use of machinery also involves 
great organizations of workers, and thus machine pro- 
duction is seen to be necessarily associated, or social 
production. It was impossible that joint production 
should be carried on without joint interests in produc- 
tion. If joint or collective interest in production had 

strength has given him greater leisure, comfort and abundance, and 
also greater opportunity for the mental training which is essential to a 
higher development. And yet it is certain that four-fifths of the steam 
engines now working in the world have been constructed in the last 
quarter of a century, or since 1865." — Wells: Recent Economic 
Changes, p. 44. 

"About the year 1770 began to appear a remarkable series of 
inventions which ushered in what we may consider the modern era 
of industrial organization. They included Watt's development of the 
steam engine to a practical form, and some far-reaching innovations 
in the processes of the textile manufactures chief among which were 
the spinning frame and the spinning jenny. 

"The immediate practical results of these were highly important. 
The factory system almost immediately sprang into vigorous life as 
their first fruits. But still more important was the fact that the 
process of development thus started has ever since been steadily going 
on, and generally at a constantly accelerating rate. It is in these 
closing years of the nineteenth century proceeding with a rapidity 
and energy never exceeded, and no one who understands the volume 
of the forces which are operating to produce it would undertake to 
form the slightest conception of its ultimate limits. 

"A century of this process of development produced results almost 
beyond conception. This century brings us down to the year 1870 — 
a time fresh in the memory of many who still consider themselves 
young. Of course, these results as embodied in the status of society 
at this latter period are not difficult of comprehension in a general 
way. They were in the main the same as those we now see around 
us. But the vastness of the distance which society had moved in 
that century, and the magnitude and wonder of the achievement, can 
only be comprehended after a close study of the details involved^ 
if, indeed, the human mind be at all adequate for such a task. The 
railroad, steamboat and telegraph; the processes of lithography and 
photography; the rotary printing press, the Jacquard loom, the Four- 
drinier paper machine; the cotton gin, the sewing machine, the reap- 
ing machine, — these are but the beginning of the story. They are 
the striking landmarks of the triumphal progress, known to all the 
people, and each one of vast importance. But hardly less important 
in the aggregate than those (and similar other) works of genius, 
and even more characteristic of the period, is the multitude of minor 
inventions which were during this century applied to and which pow- 
erfully affected every branch of industry. The whole vast aggre- 
gate of the forces of production was multiplied many times in effec- 



228- THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

never ijx^n. suggested before the joint ownership and 
joint use of the great machines, the joint use of the ma- 
chinery in the processes of production, and the neces- 
sity for a wide market in order to dispose of the goods 
would have made the suggestion and enforced the 
necessity for such an arrangement. 

288. Co-operation Necessary.— Collectivism was a 
necessity in the primitive struggle for existence, main- 
ly for reasons of defense. Machine production is a 
necessity, not so much for defensive reasons as because 
of its greater productive possibilities. But just as the 
necessities of defense made primitive man a co-oper- 
ator, so the advantages of a greater production compel 
co-operation under the machine. 

289. Drudgery Unnecessary.— Under the use of 
rude tools, each worker could own his own tools and 
largely use his own products. Association in owner- 
ship, in production, or in disposing of the product, was 
not so necessary as under the use of modern machinery. 
Personal interest in the struggle for supremacy under 
capitalism has carried the equipment of labor to a point 



tiveness by the children of man's mind, and the machinery which did 
their bidding at almost every point immeasurably outstripped in speed 
and deftness the unaided human hand. 

"We are all tolerably familiar with the state of things in 1870. 
Let us painfully try to realize what it was a century before. Strike 
out, in imagination, the railroad, steamboat, telegraph, and all our 
modern wonder-workers; bring back the hand-loom and the spinning- 
wheel; think of the slow canal-boats, and the heavily laden wagons toil- 
ing through the muddy roads, as the sole dependence for internal com- 
merce. It is a far cry from that ancient day to this recent one. 
What shall we say is the difference in productive power between the 
two systems? How much more could a million men working in the 
modern way produce than a million workers of the olden times? 

"It is. a subject too vast for even an approximate estimate. No 
man knows, or can know, with any approach to accuracy. We have 
seen several estimates on this point from trained economists. The 
smallest comparative value assigned by any one of them to the 
power of the modern way was five-fold that of the ancient. Inade- 
quate, indeed, this seems to us; the general estimate also is con- 
siderably higher — nearer twenty- fold." — Ferris: Pauperizing: the Kich, 
pp. 125-127. 



Chap. XVIII MACHINE PRODUCTION 229 

where it has attained the greatest efficiency. Just as 
the machine was necessary to bear the larger share of 
the drudgery of toil, if human beings were to be de- 
livered from the drudgery of toil, so the greatest per- 
fection of machinery means that the greatest possible 
deliverance of the toiler from the long hours and hard 
tasks of productive industry is also possible. This 
service capitalism has rendered, for under capitalism 
the equipment of industry not only makes necessary 
social use, but under capitalism the machinery itself 
has been brought to great perfection. 

290. Machinery and the World-Market.— The ma- 
chinery has made necessary the foreign market for sur- 
plus products, and the search for foreign markets and 
for cheap raw materials has sounded every sea and has 
drawn the industrial maps of all the countries of the 
earth. In this, capitalism has obtained the knowledge 
of the earth's resources and connected, for the most ef- 
fective use in this process of production, each separate 
portion of the earth. The one world-market is being 
rapidly followed by the one world-organization of in- 
dustry, by which every natural resource and every ad- 
v^antage of soil and climate will be used to the very 
best advantage in providing the necessities and com- 
forts of life. All this helps to make unnecessary the 
brutalizing drudgery of modern industry. 

291. Concentration of Private Ownership.— If it 
had been possible that all these achievements could 
have been brought about without the concentration of 
capital in few hands, it would have left great multi- 
tudes of people personally interested in the perpetua- 
tion of capitalism because of the great numbers of 
those holding private ownership in the means of pro- 
duction who would then have remained owners under 
the present order of things. 



230 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

292. Easy Transition to Collective Ownership.— 

Some years ago the problem of the transition from cap- 
italism to Socialism was regarded as a most difficult 
one, because of the great number of private owners 
who would be opposed, on account of private interests, 
to the establishment of the co-operative commonwealth. 
But capitalism has not only been perfecting and ex- 
tending the equipment of industry and the knowledge 
of the wide world 's resources ; it has also been effecting 
the concentration which leaves an ever-lessening num- 
ber of people personally interested in the perpetuation 
of capitalism, while it increases, by the same ratio, the 
number of those personally interested, because of per- 
sonal benefits, in the establishment of Socialism. 

293. A Hired Management.— Again this concentra- 
tion in the ownership of the means of production is 
perfecting the completest possible organization of the 
great industries. The capitalist owner can now hire, 
not only the labor to do the lifting and carrying, but 
the superintendence of production and the marketing 
of the products have also become the functions of the 
^^ hired man.'' Under complete capitalism, the capi- 
talist renders no service whatever. Even his service 
in management at last becomes a hired service.^ He 

2. "In the factory system the evolution towards parasitism goes 
its way in open daylight, and under a variety of forms. In propor- 
tion as the extension of the market calls for an increase in the scale 
of production, the more marked becomes the separation of the wage- 
earners, who are engaged in the actual work of production, from the 
capitalist master, who retains to himself the task of direction alone. 
Then comes the moment when those captains of industry delegate their 
functions to lieutenants, reducing their personal interference in the 
business to a minimum. One step further and we have the parasitic 
condition fully achieved; on the one side, work and no property; 
on the other side, property and no work. Then the workers do not even 
know who the capitalists are by whom they are exploited, and the 
exploiters have perhaps never even seen the industrial black-hole or 
factory of which they are the shareholders." — Massart and Vander- 
velde: Parasitism — Organic and Social, pp. 61-62. 

"The origin, development and final decay of the capitalist has a 
resemblance to the story of the feudal lord. The latter was originally 



Chap. XVIII. MACHINE PRODUCTION 231 

simply appropriates the lion's share of the products 
in consideration of having given his consent that the 
workers may nse the earth and the machines in their 
necessary work of producing the means of life. 

294. Labor Organizes According to Industries, Not 
Tools.— But this is not all. The organizations of labor 
which formerly were effected along the lines of the 
trades are taking shape now along the lines of the in- 
dustries. Formerly all organized workingmen who 
used the same tools belonged to the same labor organ- 
izations without regard to the nature of the industry 
in which they were employed. The present movement 
is in the direction of effecting an organization of all 
workingmen engaged in any industry, regardless of 
the tools used by the individual workers so employed. 
By this is meant that all the men in any way connected 
with transportation are coming rapidly into a single 
organization; all those engaged in any way in the 
building trades, into a single organization; all those 
engaged in any way in the distribution of goods 
through the great department stores, into another great 
single organization. All this is brought about by the 
necessity of all those who work for the same employers 
belonging to the same organization, in order most ef- 
fectively to deal with their own common employer or 
association of employers with interests in common. 

elected by his fellow tribesmen to lead them in battle, and on return- 
ing to camp or village sank back into equality with the rest. In 
the course of time the office of leader like that of shoemaker, armorer 
and priest, became hereditary; finally, the functions of the baron, 
once real and necessary ones, disappeared. The name "duke" is de- 
rived from a verb meaning "to lead," but the modern duke leads nothing 
more important than a cotillion, while his secretary prepares his grace's 
speech for the House of Lords and the hired steward is collecting his 
gi'ace's rents from the people whose ancestors his grace's ancestors 
plundered. So with the modern capitalist, whose function has dis- 
appeared and who now may spend his time in playing at yacht races, 
or with automobiles, while his hired manager and the professional 
"promoter" take care of the functions that used to occupy the time 
of his predecessor, the original captain of industry." — F. P. O'Hare. 



232 THE EVOLUTION" OF SOCIALISM Part III 

295. Beginning of Future Forms of Organization. 

—But this new form of tlie organization of labor which 
the necessity of the situation is bringing into existence 
is rapidly bringing into existence the very identical 
industrial organizations which will be most likely 
to operate the great industries under Socialism. But 
under capitalism they do the work with no legal stand- 
ing in the right of management or in the power to ap- 
propriate the products of their own labor. These or- 
ganizations cannot long continue to deal with every 
separate branch of their own industries without mak- 
ing the discovery that they can conduct these indus- 
tries without the useless existence and needless exploit- 
ation of the private owners of the means of production. 
It is impossible for the industrial organizations of 
labor to long continue to do all the necessary work of 
production in any great industry without making the 
discovery that they may as well use their power as 
citizens to equip themselves as workers. 

296. Industrial Developments in the Government.— 

Eesponding to this regular and orderly development 
of industry and commerce, the general government is 
rapidly specializing its functions more and more in the 
direction of industrial and commercial organization. 
The Department of Agriculture, the Department of In- 
dustry and Commerce and its Land Department, are all 
of the nature of purely administrative activities of the 
economic interests of all the people. Departments of 
transportation, of mines and mining, of textile manu- 
facturing, of stock-growing and dairying, of forestry 
of fisheries, and of foreign trade, all find the germs of 
tlieir speedy development among the subdivisions of 
the government departments already in existence. 

297. Labor Organizations and the Departments.— 
When the government, responding to the normal and 



Chap. XVI n MACHINE PRODUCTION 233 

inevitable development of the public interest in trans- 
portation, shall have organized a department devoted 
to transportation, and the workingmen employed in 
transportation are once completely organized into one 
great industrial union, it will be found impossible to 
divert the political activities of such a union from an 
effort to control that branch of the government directly 
connected with its own industry. But the same indus- 
trial developments, out from the forms of labor organ- 
ization on the one hand, and out from governmental 
activities on the other hand, and toward each other, 
are making their appearance, not only in transporta- 
tion, but in all lines of industrial life. 

298. Labor Organizations and Political Power.— 
The culmination of capitalism, as related to any in- 
dustry, turns that industry, management and all, over 
to the ' ' hired men. ' ^ The culmination of the labor or- 
ganization must finally bring into one organization all 
the workers employed in any single industry, regard- 
less of the kind of tools or the nature of the tasks in- 
volved. The necessary response of the political au- 
thorities to the economic activities of the people cre- 
ates government departments, corresponding both to 
the forms of the organization of the industry and to 
the forms of the organization of labor. The workers 
discover that they are doing all the world's work in- 
dependent of the private owners. Inevitably they are 
led to use their political power to capture the control 
of that department of government related to their own 
industry and then to extend its functions in their owd 
behalf. 

299. Transforming the Government.— Let this hap- 
pen in many industries and the workers will not only 
become the political masters but they will transform 
the character of the government's activities, from the 
current military and monopolistic maladministration 



234 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

of public affairs for the private benefit of the few, to 
purely administrative^ industrial functions in belialf of 
all. The same forces which will then rule in the or- 
ganizations of labor will also rule in the affairs of the 
state. The very center and soul of the labor organ- 
izations is collectivism, democracy and equality. With 
their coming into place and power, the current social 
revolution will be complete. Government plutocracy 
will have been ousted and will have been succeeded by 
industrial democracy— which is Socialism. 

300. The Evolution of Socialism.— Hence it is seen 
that Socialism also has its origin in the great modern 
machinery. Every step in the perfection of the great 
machines and of the industrial and commercial organ- 
izations of the private owners of the machines and 
every step in the creation of labor organizations, along 
the lines of the great industrial groups, which the 
use of the great machines makes necessary, are steps 
in the development of Socialism. 

Nothing but machine production could have brought 
about such a situation. The growth of the hand sickle 
and the flail into the great harvester; the growth of 
the carrying trail of savagery into the great systems 
of modern transportation ; the growth of the devices for 
making cloth from the finger-twisted threads of the 
earliest workers into the modern factory, are all steps 
in the development of Socialism. 

The organization of the partnership, then the cor- 
poration, then the trust, then the world-trust and final- 
ly the federation of all the trusts, while they are 
steps in the development of capitalism, even capitalism 
is here seen to be the forerunner of Socialism. There- 
fore, they, too, are steps in the development of Social- 
ism. 

Without capitalism the organization of collectivism, 
democracy and equality, in the struggle for existence, 



Chap. XVIII MACHINE PRODUCTION 235 

under the great machine, which makes unnecessary 
the further drudgery of toil, would have been most 
difficult, if not impossible. 

With the great machinery, the coming of Socialism 
is simply the further adjustment of the forms of society 
to the improved processes by which the race provides 
for its own existence.^ 

301. Summary.— 1. Industrial drudgery is made 
unnecessary by the great machines. 

2. Organized ownership and organized labor are 
both made inevitable by the great machines. 

3. The transition to collective ownership of the 
means of producing the means of life is made certain 
and easy by the concentration of industry caused by 
the great machines. 

4. Labor is organizing along the lines of the vari- 
ous industries and so is developing organizations which 
will be able to operate the industries without the cap- 
italists. • 

5. The government more and more organizes indus- 
trial departments which in the end will compel the 

3. "Since the advent of civilization the outgrowth of property 
has been so immense, its forms so diversified, its uses so expanding 
and its management so intelligent in the interests of its owners, 
that it has become, on the part of the people, an unmanageable 
power. The human mind stands bewildered in the presence of its 
own creation. The time will come nevertheless when human intelli- 
gence will rise to the mastery over property and define the relations 
of the state to the property it protects as well as the obligations and 
the limits of the rights of its owners. The interests of society are para- 
mount to individual interests and the two must be brought into just 
and harmonious relations. A mere property career Is not the final 
destiny of mankind, if progress is to be the law of the future as it 
has been of the past. The time which has passed away since civiliza- 
tion began is but a fragment of the past duration of man's existence; 
and but a fragment of the ages yet to come. The dissolution of society 
bids fair to become the termination of a career of which property is 
the end and aim; because such a career contains the elements of self- 
destruction. Democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality 
in rights and privileges, and universal education, equally foreshadow the 
next higher plane of society to which experience, intelligence and knowl- 
edge are steadily tending. It will be a revival, in a higher form, of 
the liberty, equality and fraternity of the ancient gentes." * * * 
— Morgan: Ancient Society, p. 552. 



236 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

workers to control the government in order to control 
their own interests as workers as represented in these 
government departments. 

6. The control of the workers in the affairs of the 
government will enforce collectivism, democracy and 
equality throughout all political and industrial af- 
fairs. 

7. This whole order of advance not only leads to 
Socialism, but could not have been brought about ex- 
cept through the order of capitalistic development, 
which is, therefore, the forerunner of Socialism. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Quote Aristotle. 

2. Need human labor be destructive of human life? 

3. What followed the introduction of the great machines? 

4. Why is co-operation necessary under the use of the great 
machines ? 

5. Why does collective ownership become easy and certain under 
the use of the great machines ? 

6. How does the capitalist finally become an entirely useless 
factor in production? 

7. What is the most recent development in the organization of 
labor unions? 

8. How do the great industries become related to the adminis- 
tration of government ? 

9. Why will the new form of industrial organizations be more 
likely to seek political power? 

10. Are there any indications of the beginning of the forms of 
organizations of labor which are likely to operate the great industries 
in the future? 

11. How will the industrial activities of the workers, when they 
become the supreme political authority of the country, affect the 
government ? 

12. What will mark the completion of the current social revo- 
lution? 



CHAPTER XIX 

UTOPIAS, COLONIES, CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES AND SCIEN- 
TIFIC SOCIALISM 

302. Dreams Which Nations Dream.— The ideals 
which have finally grown into the proposals of the 
Socialists were voiced by prophets, poets and dream- 
ers long centuries before the industrial and economic 
conditions were so developed as to make inevitable the 
coming into actual life and form of these dreams of 
the dreamers. It is said that the dreams which na- 
tions dream come true. It is certain that these dreams 
of the long past were grounded on real and lasting 
factors in human life. 

It would be easy to sneer at the ancestry of 
scientific Socialism, but these dreams and hopes 
were really dreamed about and hoped for, and even 
this dreaming and hoping are a part of the facts which 
scientific students of the subject of Socialism must not 
ignore. 

The first efforts to put into working form the pro- 
posals of the Socialists were in the form of Utopian 
pictures. The first efforts in modern times to organize 
living workers into productive bodies for the mutual 

237 



238 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

benefit of the workers only were made by co-operative 
colonies. 

303. Communism and Socialism.— The word Social- 
ism was first made and used as referring to the plans 
and purposes of these colonies. Communism is a term 
older than Socialism. The manifesto of the Socialists 
of 1848, which first gave any adequate expression to 
Socialism as a world-wide movement, urging the work- 
ing men of all countries to unite, was published under 
the title of the ^^ Communist Manifesto," and is still 
known by that- name. Notwithstanding this. Social- 
ism has come to refer to the proposal to provide for 
the joint ownership and joint administration of pro- 
ductive property only, and that on at least a national 
basis, while communism has come to refer to the pro- 
posal to jointly own and administer both the things 
of public and of private use, and this usually within 
small groups and on limited territory. 

304. Primeval Survivals.— The Utopian dreams are 
so old as to suggest that they may have come to us as 
survivals of the primeval brotherhoods, seeking to ad- 
just themselves to the successive environments of the 
various stages of man's industrial advance. Plato's 
^'Eepublic" was among the earliest of these pictures 
and he says in his introduction that his work was sug- 
gested by a visit to the ceremonies of a dedication by 
one of the Grecian Trade Unions, and there can be 
little doubt that these very ancient organizations of 
workers were direct survivals from or reversions to the 
more ancient tribal organizations. 

Augustine's "Holy City," Bacon's *' Atlantis," 
More's "Utopia," and Bellamy's "Looking Back- 
ward" were pictures which have been frequently mis- 
taken for detail drawings and specifications by which 
actually to build the new civilization. 

305. A New Defense for Old Proposals.— The one 



Chap. XIX UTOPIAS AND SOCIALISM 239 

thing which marks the transition from these ntopian 
efforts to the propaganda of the scientific Socialists 
is the difference in the basis of the reasoning of the 
advocates of the older and the newer schools. The 
principles of collectivism, democracy and equality had 
all been declared for and defended, for centuries be- 
fore the formulation and defense of the doctrines of 
scientific Socialism. In more recent years it had been 
attempted to introduce these principles into the gov- 
ernment of industries, but the reasons assigned for do- 
ing so and the plans proposed were not based on the 
new philosophy of evolution.^ 

The change in the method of defense of these prin- 
ciples involved in the proposed reorganization of in- 
dustry was not more marked than in other fields of 
thought. The coming into scientific discussions of the 
evolutionary philosophy at once re-stated the grounds 
of defense for all sorts of positions, in philosophy, in 
religion, in morals, in politics, and in economics, in con- 
formity to this new method of procedure. The con- 
troversies between the old Socialists and the new ones 
were not more marked and were not so bitter as in 
religion, in the sciences, and in the general philosophy 
of history. 

The whole field of thought has been deeply affected, 
but the new philosophy which the evolutionist has 
taught reinforces the proposals of the Socialists, and 
gives a defense so rational and so conclusive, so di- 
rectly emphasizing the whole theory of the struggle 
for existence and the survival of those forms best 
adapted to the conditions under which the struggle 

1. "There was, then, a political economy among the ancients as 
there is among the moderns; not a systematic and formulated political 
economy, but one arising from facts, and practiced before being written. 
Such has been, moveover, the course of all sciences since the origin 
of society. The first comers conceive and execute; the later ones 
reason and improve and complete the work of their predecessors."— 
Blanqui : History of Political Economy, p. 26. 



240 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

goes on, that few indeed are the advocates of Social- 
ism who would think of employing any other form of 
defense. 

306. Before the Doctrine of Evolution.— Before the 
teaching of the evolutionary philosophy the proposals 
of the Socialists had been presented as the wise plans 
of some philanthropist, and naturally on lines of en- 
terprise sufficiently limited to be within the reason- 
able enterprise of some such benefactor. They were 
not presented as the necessary result of preceding con- 
ditions, nor as the necessary outgrowth of industrial 
development. Again, the industrial revolution central- 
ized and equipped industry on so large a scale as to 
suggest the collective ownership and democratic use 
of the means of production, and therefore helped to 
transfer the foundations of the argument from phil- 
anthropic ideals to economic causes. 

307. On a Small Scale.— The early Socialists tried 
to establish co-operative organizations which should 
exemplify the new co-operative commonwealth on a 
small scale. Their idea was that the new common- 
wealth would be made up of a number of such unrelated 
local enterprises. These enterprises were not under- 
taken as a means by which modern Socialism could be 
established. They were undertaken before scientific 
Socialism had been formulated. These experiments 
are widely confounded with Socialism, and this is 
largely true, because the word Socialism was first ap- 
plied to such enterprises before Socialism was itself 
developed into its present form. Socialism is no longer 
a dream or a picture, however beautiful, nor a proposal 
to build with pictures drawn in perspective as detail 
drawings.^ 

2. "The spread of productive co-operation would not be, it is true, 
in principle a socialistic organization; for associations of this type 
would still be only competitive business, the latest development of 
the cajjitalistic principle, * * * The socialistic state will not be 



Chap. XIX UTOPIAS AND SOCIALISM 241 

308. Service of the Utopians.— It must not be un- 
derstood that because the utopian pictures were not 
building-plans and detail-drawings that therefore they 
were valueless. They were valueless as building 
models, but as a means of attacking outgrown indus- 
trial and commercial institutions and usages, and of 
arousing the interest and fixing the attention of those 
who are without interest in such matters, it is difficult 
to conceive of a better method than to begin with a 
story which teaches, while it entertains, and is able to 
teach because it is able to entertain. The harm comes 
when the poetic and literary work of a dreamer 
is attacked or defended as if it were written not to 
arouse and enthuse for battle but to take the place of 
marching orders. One may enjoy poetry and be deep- 
ly moved and helped by it without adopting the habit 
of speaking only in rhyme.^ 

realized till there remains only collective property in the instruments 
of social production. This must be borne in mind in order to under- 
stand the luke-warmness of the clearest heads among the socialists to- 
wara petty co-operative associations of a Schulze, and toward the 
question of profit-sharing among workmen toward the labor bureaus 
of the liberal state and toward the equally anarchical system of inde- 
pendent productive groups (such as are suggested by the anarchist), 
with their associated capital held together by no bond of union, but 
meeting on the bare footing of contract. Such enterprises are based 
on the competition of separate capital; they have a disjointed system 
of production; they presuppose always an anarchical struggle of private 
interests (between employers and employed, between earnest and idle 
workers, between co-operators and non-co-operators, between shrewdly 
managed social productive societies successful in their speculations 
and unsuccessful competing associations ) . The clear-§ighted social- 
ist, as is well known approves these only in so far as they draw closer 
the connection of the worker with the means of production, and ad- 
vance the growth of a consciousness of collective interests; for the 
rest, he shrugs his shoulders at them. 

"Marx was indifferent or even averse to these 'reforms.' 
Socialism demands that there shall be collective ownership in the 
means of production; then, and then only, will it be possible to effect, 
in due proportion to labor, the assignment of incomes and private 
property in the means of enjoyment." — Schaeffle: The Quintessence 
of Socialism, pp. 21, 62-3. 

3. ''I propose only -to offer a few suggestions regarding your study 
of Socialist literature. 

**First. Socialism like any other great and momemtous scheme, is 



242 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

309. Benefits of Co-operation.— Again, it must not 
be understood that co-operative enterprises have ren- 
dered no service and that because they are not in- 
stances of concrete Socialism that therefore they are 
to be condemned. 

The last census of the United States (1900) shows 
that the average per capita property for the whole 
people of the United States was one thousand dollars, 
but at the same time the average within co-operative 
organizations was three thousand dollars. In the case 
of those not in the co-operative organizations it was 
very unequally divided, most people being without 
visible property, while within the organizations all 
members had equal ownership. 

Again, the standard of living within the organiza- 
tions has been very much higher than without. There 
are eighty such organizations in the United States, 
some of them more than one hundred years old, rep- 
resenting a population of many thousand people who 
are the possessors, and who use co-operatively, pro- 
ductive property worth many millions of dollars. 

310. Co-operative Stores.— The co-operative stores 
of Great Britain, France and Belgium have grown to be 
great institutions. Co-operative production in shops, 
owned and managed by the workers themselves, is also 
carried on both in England and America, and with 
marked success. While none of these are illustra- 

entitled to be judged by its latest and its best word; not to be de- 
rided for the crudities and absurdities of its early advocates. * * *" 

"Second. Socialism as a subject under debate by great thinkers, 
is not to be confounded with the Utopias of a few individuals like 
Mr. Bellamy's Looking Backward, or Dr. Hertzka's later Freeland. 
The great Socialists themselves have generally declined to offer any 
definite detailed scheme for the government control of production 
and distribution; and in this they have kept within their right. * 
* * Inasmuch as they only indicate what appear to them general 
tendencies of society they have a right to say, "We do not know just 
where, just when, just how all this will issue.'" — Walker: Discussions 
in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II., p. 294-5. 

See also Schaeffle: Quintessence of Socialism, Chapters I., II, 



Chap. XIX UTOPIAS AND SOCIALISM 24? 

tions of Socialism, yet they all tend to demonstrate the 
great economy in co-operative production and distribu- 
tion, and what is of more consequence, the ability 
of the people to effectively organize and direct great 
industrial and commercial democracies, and are there- 
fore of importance in the study of the development of 
Socialism. 

311. Co-operative Communities.— It is a frequent 
saying that co-operative colonies are doomed to failure 
—that they have always failed. This is not true. A 
much larger percentage of the enterprises undertaken 
under capitalism with no co-operative features fail 
than of those which are co-operative. Most capitalistic 
enterprises fail even after they have been long estab- 
lished and in operation. Nearly all of the co-operative 
colonies which have failed have failed in the effort to 
make a beginning. 

But there are particular difficulties which stand in 
the way of the success of these co-operative enterprises 
which ought to be mentioned in this connection. 

312. Chances for Unity.— 1. They are usually made 
up of men who, having been continually victimized by 
capitalistic employers, have formed the habit of look- 
ing with suspicion upon those who have special train- 
ing or experience in the management of business mat- 
ters. This habit follows them into the co-operative or- 
ganizations and makes it very difficult, if not impos- 
sible, for the workers to act continuously and effective- 
ly as a unit. 

313. Waiting for Returns.— 2. Again, whoever 
works for wages for a long time, receiving pay every 
Saturday night, is likely to find it very difficult to bear 
a share in enterprises where one must wait a long time 
for returns. It is not an easy thing for one who has 
never been obliged to wait more than thirty days for 
the next pay day to wait for an annual harvest. Such 



2U THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

enterprises are usually undertaken with scant capital, 
and it is not only waiting for a harvest, but frequently 
for many years of privation, before the days of plenty 
can arrive. It has been everywhere observed that a 
farmer who goes to the frontier to grow up with the 
country is much more likely to stay by the country un- 
til it grows up than one whose previous engagements 
have never trained him to wait for the harvest. It is 
these men who have their training as wage-workers 
and who cannot wait for the harvest who are likely to 
have the controlling voice in managing enterprises 
which, in the nature of the case, can rarely succeed ex- 
cept after years of waiting. 

314. Under Suspicion.— 3. It would seem that such 
a co-operative enterprise would have the sympathy and 
support of those who are workers in the neighbor- 
hood where it is undertaken, but this is not the case. 
The workers in such an organization are sure to be 
misunderstood by their neighbors, and, most of all, by 
the people of their own class. It is hard for anyone to 
make a beginning among strangers. It is found par- 
ticularly hard by co-operative organizations, inasmuch 
as, in spite of themselves, they are sure to fill the neigh- 
bors with prejudices against themselves long before 
they can have a chance to prove their integrity and use- 
fulness as good citizens by their conduct and their 
industry. 

315. Enmity of the Courts.— 4. The law permits the 
organization of co-operative enterprises, and under the 
common law the rules and regulations established by 
such an organization have the force of a contract and 
become a part of the law which the courts are set to 
enforce; but while the law permits the organization 
of co-operative enterprises, both in the letter and in 
the spirit of the law, those who are set to enforce the 
Mws are the agents of those who are opposed, on gen- 



Chap. XIX UTOPIAS AND SOCIALISM 245 

eral principles, to co-operative undertakings and have 
no regard for the '' binding force of contracts'' when 
used by workers who are trying to live in the world 
and to escape any share of the service which capital- 
ism exacts from all who toil. 

It is rare, indeed, that a co-operative association can 
secure justice, or even a hearing, to say nothing of a 
just decision, before any court which will be permitted 
to exist so long as capitalism is permitted to control. 

The story of any co-operative colony reported to 
have failed is usually a long and dreary narrative of 
the attacks of the courts established to protect life and 
to make secure property in the possession of those 
to whom it belongs ; but which courts were used instead 
for the purpose of defaming the character and taking 
away the property of industrious people, who, because 
they were not serving th-e interests which had elected 
the court, were treated as if they were without rights 
before the court. 

316. Bishop Hill.— The Bishop Hill property in 
Illinois, now worth many millions, was thirty years in 
control of the courts, while the people who owned it 
were not permitted to use their own property in their 
own way. 

317. Ruskin Colony.— The Euskin Colony in Ten- 
nessee is another case where a receivership took pos- 
session of the property of the association under the 
pretense of defending property rights, and while the 
court robbed the whole group it refused to permit the 
workers to settle on any terms with the complainants 
and to retain and use their own property. 

318. Kaweah Colony.— The Kaweah Colony in Cali- 
fornia settled on public lands, built a road costing a 
quarter of a million of dollars, made good their title 
before special land commissioners appointed by the 
government, and then, without a hearing, their land 



246 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

was declared a public park by act of Congress and the 
people driven by United States troops from the wealth 
their hands had created and the colony .advertised as a 
failure. The advertisement, to be complete, should 
have outlined the process by which capitalism, at least 
in this case, was made such a pronounced success. 

The author of these pages worked for seven years in 
various efforts of this kind. Twice he saw a court 
refuse to examine the terms of agreement under which 
an association was acting and proceed to dispose of 
the property of the defendant association without even 
hearing a statement of the case before the court. 

319. Greatest Enterprises Out of Reach.— 5. Again, 
the great tools of modern industry are railways, banks, 
stores, great manufacturing enterprises, where many 
thousands of people are employed in single lines of in- 
dustry under a single management, with limitless cap- 
ital, perfect equipment and the best possible organiza- 
tion. These are the great tools with which modern in- 
dustry is carried on. Small groups of workers cannot 
possibly own, and could not operate if they did own, 
these great enterprises. Whatever their plans, they 
cannot include the operation of these great industries; 
but without a share in these they must remain depend- 
ent upon the forces which control these great enter- 
prises whenever they come into the market to dispose 
of whatever their labor may produce, or to purchase 
from the market such articles as they may need and 
cannot manufacture. 

320. An Unequal Battle.— 6. Again, the capitalistic 
enterprises are engaged in a terrific warfare with each 
other. Nothing is so characteristic of the present time 
as is this warfare by which great enterprises are clear- 
ing the field of their small competitors, and, as they 
face each other, going into bankruptcy or going into 
the trusts. The methods by which this warfare be- 



Chap. XIX UTOPIAS AND SOCIALISM 247 

tween the great corporations is being carried on are 
familiar. One corporation will get control of the 
sources upon which another corporation depends for 
the credit by the use of which it is able to carry on its 
business. Many a corporation has destroyed a com- 
petitor, not by underselling him, but by securing a 
position on the board of directors in the bank where 
the competitor discounted his paper, in order to refuse 
the accommodations at the bank on which the com- 
petitor depended for his existence. 

The control of patents which the competitor must 
use, the control of raw materials which the competitor 
must have, the control of transportation upon which 
the competitor depends, are all methods well known in 
the industrial warfare and used every hour in the pro- 
cess by which the corporations are destroying each 
other, or in the face of which they avoid destruction 
by consenting to combination in the form of a trust. 

Now, a co-operative organization competing in the 
same market with the trust will not only be unable to 
secure control of the banks, the patents, the raw ma- 
terials or the transportation, but because of the very 
nature of the organization it cannot hope to become 
effective in the use of such methods in the struggle for 
maintaining a place for itself in the trust-ruled market. 

The capitalistic competitor will hold his organization 
closely in hand, can keep his own counsel, and will be 
able to wield his full strength without delay, without 
a division in his own ranks and with the skill of long 
experience. The co-operative organization competing 
with the trust is unable to keep its own secrets, to act 
without delay, will always act with divided counsel and 
without skill or experience in such a contest. 

321. World-Wide Conflict.-?. The capitalistic or- 
ganization is international. The ordinary co-oper- 
ative colony would count itself successful if it were able 



248 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

to absorb the industry and enterprise of a single town- 
ship. Townships cannot cope with continents in this 
industrial warfare. The master of the co-operative 
township cannot hope to become the master of the 
capitalistic continent. In such a conflict the continent 
will control. 

322. Co-Operative Organization a Public Function. 
—The fact is that in all these enterprises the principal 
thing which the co-operative organization is under- 
taking to do is to perform certain functions which be- 
long to the whole body of society. The earth belongs 
to all mankind. No man can justly hold a claim against 
it outlasting his own lifetime. No human being was 
ever given his life on earth without at the same time 
being given his right to the use of the earth and all 
its productive powers in order to maintain his life 
while here; but the great body whose duty it is to see 
that dead hands let go and that the feeble hands of 
children shall be able to find their place and to hold 
their own is not a small group, not a fraternity, nor a 
brotherhood, nor a co-operative society, nor a colony. 
It is neither the people of a township nor of a continent. 
That is a function which belongs to the whole race 
and whatever group of people attempts to perform this 
function is assuming to do that which the whole body 
of society alone has the right and the power to do. To 
be sure, so long as society refuses to do its duty, indi- 
viduals and groups of individuals will continue to do 
the best they can. 

323. Socialists and Co-Operators.— Socialism is not 
committed to opposition to co-operative associations, 
shops or stores, or colonies, as compared with unadul- 
terated capitalism. It should be borne in mind that 
the capitalist is doomed to destruction by capitalism 
as well as the co-operator. Whatever is built on that 
foundation, whether by capitalism, pure and simple, ox 



Chap. XIX UTOPIAS AND SOCIALISM 249 

by co-operators, acting under capitalism and as com- 
petitors with capitalism, can never deliver us from 
capitalism nor show on any scale what industry and 
trade would be without capitalism. Socialists are by 
instinct co-operators. Just as the Socialist movement 
came up through its Utopian period of development, 
the individual is not unlikely to take the same route 
and become a co-operator first and a Socialist after- 
ward. The co-operator who has grown to be a Socialist 
may be no less a co-operator while capitalism lasts than 
before he learned the larger lesson of the co-operative 
commonwealth.^ 

324. All Corporations Perform Public Functions.— 
It should be remembered further that every corpora- 
tion is attempting to perform a public function as well 
as are the co-operative societies. This is not only a 
theory of the Socialists, but it is a fact, recognized in 
the courts and established in the forms of law. The 
corporation is a public body created by the public and 
has the right to exist solely and only because it serves 
the public. When it serves the public badly, or when 
the public can find a better way for securing the same 
service, or when the public can perform the service 
without the corporation, the corporation, which has no 
right to exist except for the public welfare, under such 
circumstances forfeits its right to exist at all.^ 



4. "But whatever Socialism may have meant in the past its real 
significance now is the steady expansion of representative self-govern- 
ment into the industrial sphere. This industrial democracy it is, and 
not any ingenious Utopia, with which individualists, if they desire to 
make any effectual resistance to the substitution of collective for 
individual will must attempt to deal." — Webb: Problems of Modern 
Industry, p. 252. 

5. "Sentimental Socialism has furnished some attempts at Utopian 
construction, but the modern world of politics has presented and does 
present still more of them with the ridiculous and chaotic mess of 
laws and codes which surround every man from his birth to his death, 
and even before he is born and after he is dead, in an inextricable net- 
work of codes, laws, decrees and regulations which stifle him like 



250 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

325. A Township Against a Continent.— If the co- 
operative commonwealth is to be inaugurated, it will 
not be done by capturing a township and using that 
to capture a continent; it will be done by capturing the 
political authority of the whole body of society. The 
corporations which have assumed public functions are 
able to continue to serve society badly, to use the ma- 
chinery of industry and commerce to injure rather than 
to benefit, because they control the political authority 
of the whole body of society. It is not by their activity 
in business, but because they supplement their mastery 
in the market with their mastery at the ballot box. 

The workers are helpless in the market, but their 
voice is the supreme authority at the ballot box. Sue- 
cessful co-operation in the market still leaves the co- 
operators the easy victims of the capitalists who wield 
the public authority. Successful co-operation on 
the part of the workers at the ballot box will make 
them the masters of the shops and markets and will 
leave no power able to withstand them while they build 
the co-operative commonwealth. 

326. The Evolution of Socialism.— All co-operative 
efforts help to hasten the coming of Socialism. They 
have been an important factor in the evolution of So- 
cialism. So far as they have succeeded they have sug- 
gested the greater possibilities of the co-operative com- 
monwealth. So far as they have failed they have em- 
phasized the class antagonisms which so largely have 
been the cause of their failures. They have hastened 
the more general comprehension of scientific Social- 
ism and have deepened the determination of great 

the silk- worm, in the cocoon." — Ferri: Socialism and Modern Science, 
p. 131. 

"To this revolutionary idealism we must all cling fast, then, come 
what will, we can bear the heaviest, attain the highest, and remain 
worthy of the great historical purpose that awaits us." — ^Kautsky: So- 
cial Revolution, p. 102. 



Chap. XIX UTOPIAS AND SOCIALISM 251 

numbers of people to stand fast to the end in the wider 
encounter.^ 

327. Summary.— 1. Utopian literature has been a 
great factor in economic and social discussions. 

2. The word Socialism was first applied to the 
theories advanced in defense of co-operative colonies or 
communities, and was afterward applied to the doc- 
trines of Socialism as afterward developed; while the 
word ^^ Communism '' came to apply to efforts to jointly 
administer living expenses as well as the means of pro- 
duction. 

3. Utopian Socialism was developed before the 
theory of evolution was taught, and hence makes no 
use of the scientific defense of its proposals. Scientific 
Socialism is simply the proposals of collectivism, de- 
mocracy and equality, defended by the use of the 
scientific arguments developed by the application of 
the theory of evolution to the domain of economics. 

4. Utopian Socialism, taking no account of the 
scientific defense of Socialism, does not present the 
economic struggle as one between economic classes 
acting under the general doctrine of the struggle for 
existence and the survival of the fittest. Scientific 
Socialism practically rests its case on the struggle for 
existence and the survival of the fittest as applied to 
the industrial development. 

5. Utopian Socialism aspires after a juster and 
fairer industrial condition and has frequently attempt- 
ed to realize such a condition by setting up a model on 
a small scale to show the world how it would work. 

6. "As for the statesmen themselves, nothing further need here be 
said. The whole of this work has been an attempted demonstration of 
the illusions into which they have fallen by taking their stand on what 
can be seen through the keyhole of the present alone, and in consequence 
mistaking for political ends what, had they given themselves a greater 
length of line as perspective, they would have seen to be temporary po- 
litical means merely." — Crozier: History of Intellectual Development, 
Vol. III., p. 227. 



252 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part 111 

Scientific Socialism denies that the Socialist state can 
be established in spots, in advance of the economic 
development, or nntil the economic development 
reaches the stage in which Socialism will be the regu- 
lar scientific survival in the conflict between the eco- 
nomic interests which will be best served by Socialism 
and the economic interests now served by capitalism, 
and that when that stage is reached Socialism must 
come or world-wide disaster will be the inevitable re- 
sults 

6. Co-operative societies, colonies and manufactur- 
ing and commercial enterprises, have all established 
by actual experience, first, the practicability of demo- 
cratic management; and secondly, the very great 
advantage of co-operative endeavor on a small scale, 
as compared with small enterprises carried on under 
competition. 

7. It is very difficult to secure the otherwise possi- 
ble advantages of co-operative organization under 

7. "Revolution simply means that the evolution of society has 
reached the point where a complete transformation, both external and 
internal, has become immediately inevitable. No man and no body of 
men can make such a revolution before the time is ripe for it; though, 
as men become conscious instead of unconscious agents in the develop- 
ment of the society in which they live and of which they form a part 
they may themselves help to bring about this revolution. A successful 
revolution, whether effected in the one way or the other, merely gives 
legal expression and sanction to the new forms which, for the most part 
unobserved or disregarded, have developed in the womb of the old 
society. Force may be used at the end of the period as during the in- 
cubative and full growth. It is true, as Marx said, that force is the mid- 
wife of progress delivering the old society pregnant with the new; but 
on the other hand, force is also the abortionist of reaction, doing its 
utmost to strangle the new society in the womb of the old. Force it- 
self, on either side, is merely a detail in that inevitable growth which 
none can very rapidly advance or seriously hinder." — Hyndman: Eco- 
nomics of Socialism, p. 4. 

"One nation can and should learn from others. And even when a 
society has got upon the right track for the discovery of the natural 
laws of its inovement — and it is the ultimate aim of this work to lay 
bare the economic law of motion of modern society — it can neither clear 
by bold leaps, nor remove by legal enactments, the obstacles offered by 
the successive phases of its normal development. But it can shorten 
and lessen the birth pangs." — Marx: Capital, preface to first edi- 
tion, p. 19. 



Chap. XIX UTOPIAS AND SOCIALISM 253 

capitalism, because of the inexperience in management 
on the part of the workers, the prejudice of the public, 
the long waiting for returns and the determined oppo- 
sition of capitalistic society, which controls and uses 
the courts of law to interfere with and to destroy such 
undertakings. 

8. Co-operative enterprises cannot get control of 
the great shops, factories, mines, railways, banks and 
storehouses ; but these are the principal means of mod- 
ern production and exchange, and are in possession 
and control of capitalism. 

9. Captitalism uses all these forces to destroy co- 
operative enterprises. 

10. The workers are the masters at the ballot box. 
If they will stand together there, they can use the 
power of the state to take possession and control of 
all the great enterprises, and the others will follow. It 
is easier to capture a continent by Socialism than a 
township by co-operative undertakings committed to 
the spread of Socialism. The continent will include 
the township. The township, if won, would be but a 
temporary victory. The continent would in the end 
control. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. In what way is the origin of the word Socialism related to the 
co-operative communities ? 

2. Define communism and Socialism as related to each other. 

3. In what way is the Utopian literature related to the beginning 
of the agitation for Socialism? 

4. Are these writings valuable in propaganda work, and if so, why ? 

5. What services have co-operative enterprises rendered regardless 
of their relations to Socialism? 

6. Are such enterprises more likely to be failures than those with- 
out co-operative features? 

7. Name some particular difficulties in the way of co-operative 
enterprises. 

8. Can co-operative enterprises take advantage of the greatest tools 
of modern industry? 

9. State relations of modern corporations to each other and give 



254 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

reasons why co-operative organizations are at a disadvantage in the 
midst of these competitive encounters. 

10. Why is the work of a co-operative society or colony an assump- 
tion of public functions? 

11. Is the same true of private corporations? 

12. How have co-operative undertakings helped in the evolution of 
Socialism? 



CHAPTER XX 

THE GROWTH OF THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITY OF THE RACE 

328. Tribal Solidarity.— During the primitive life 
of the race there was no sense of the common race life, 
neither was there any sufficient appreciation of the 
individual. The life of primitive man was limited by 
ignorance and ruled by fear. The slight organization 
which was possible was little above the animal plane. 
There was no realization of anything like a world-life 
or a race-life. The stranger, whether man or beast, 
was regarded but a brute. The man outside the tribe 
was not understood to have any claim to existence, or 
to sustain any relations whatever to those belonging to 
the tribe or clan. The members of the tribe were con- 
scious of the tribal life. In fact, the tribal life was the 
real life of primitive man. 

329. Absence of the Individual.— While his life did 
not go beyond the tribe as recognizing any human re- 
lations between himself and any others not belonging 
to his own group, it never stopped short of the tribe 
to consider sufficiently the individual as of any con- 
sequence for his own sake. 

330. A Completer Individuality.— The development 
of the individual was made possible only by the ad- 

255 



256 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

vance of society, and society has advanced only as its 
activities have tended to the further development of 
the individual. There is no such thing as a real social 
advance which does not manifest itself in a completer 
individuality. And there can be no such thing as a 
great individuality which does not at the same time 
manifest itself in efforts tending toward the soc'al 
growth.^ 

Every advance in the life of the individual is re- 
flected in a corresponding advance in the life of f50- 
ciety; and every real improvement in the life of so- 
ciety is reflected in a corresponding improvement in 
the selfhood of the individual. A¥hen selfishness is 
attacked it is that element in selfishness which is also 
meanness. When selfishness is defended it is not the 
meanness which any one would attempt to defend. It 
is the selfhood without which there can never be either 
a great manhood or a great society. 

331. Primitive Ignorance of Earth and Man.— The 
primitive man was ignorant of all the world which he 
could not cover by his own travels. He was ignorant 
of all social institutions which did not belong to his 
own group. Beyond the reach of his own vision his 
fears had peopled the plains, forests and seas with 
monstrosities which really only existed as the creations 
of his frightened imagination. In the midst of the 
beasts of prey and of human strangers deadlier than 
the beasts themselves, he could not exist except in 
groups. There was no race-life possible. The achieve- 
ment of any sense of a solidarity of interest, or 
sympathy, or of life as wide as the race, could only be 

1. "Not ■ only is it impossible to achieve personal moral growth 
aside from the community; this personal strength being gained, gives at 
once the conditions of successfully combined action. The objections to 
organic effort in society fall to the ground just in the degree in which 
men attain private virtue. Nothing can withhold men from the col- 
lective use of their collective powers, any more than from the private vse 
of their private powers." — Bascom: Sociology, p. 252. 



Chap. XX THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITY 257 

effected by the creation of conditions and by the oper- 
ation of forces which could awaken in him a conscious- 
ness, not only of his relations to the wider life of the 
race, but at the same time awaken and reveal to himself 
the possibilities of his own personality. 

332. World Conquest and Race Solidarity.— The 
earliest movement towards the world-life was the wars 
between the tribes, which finally resulted in world-wide 
conquest. Man was first able to realize something like 
a vital connection between the individual within the 
tribe and the whole race without and beyond the tribe, 
as the result of this world-wide conquest, which com- 
pelled him, as a single personality, to surrender to the 
single central authority established as the result of the 
militarism of the ancient world. 

333. The Great Religions.— The great religions fol- 
lowed closely upon the heels of conquest. It is im- 
possible to understand what is in man, or to follow the 
story of social development, and ignore the part which 
the great religions of the world have had in the great 
movements of the race. Whatever abuses may have 
attached to ecclesiastical organizations, every effort 
undertaken by any group of men to convert other 
groups of men to the religion of their own group has 
been an effort which has tended to create a sense of the 
unity of the race. 

The great world religions, moving and guiding the 
thought of whole continents and races, and for genera- 
tions together, in the effort to bring others under their 
sway, have had no small share in teaching the lesson 
of the oneness of the race. The Christian religion is 
particularly and has always been a religion of mission- 
aries. Where the missionaries have gone, trade has 
followed; or where trade has gone and the missionary 
followed, with the direct result of making trade more 
profitable, there a new force has at once been set to 



258 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

work in revealing to man the fact of a common hnman 
life. 

334. Into All Nations to Trade With Them.— The 

earliest advance toward a sense of a wider life came 
to the tribe when it crossed a river or a mountain 
range to fight with the neighboring tribes. Bnt going 
into all nations in order to trade with them has broken 
down prejudices and race hatreds, and has revealed 
to all men a common interest and common life, and 
has enforced that common interest and that common 
life to a degree never before possible. The same wants, 
the same means of support, the same appetites and pas- 
sions, the same ambitions, the same hopes and fears, 
the same aspirations, the same hopelessness in the face 
of blight, or plague, or storm, the same cruelty in strife 
and the same tenderness of parental regard— all are 
revealed by trade, by the interchange of goods, as the 
common lot of all men and in all lands. The silks, the 
spices, the cotton and woolen goods, the rubber, the 
tea, the coffee, the items which make up our own simple 
daily fare— have they not come from all races and 
from everywhere? They come with the touch of the 
life upon them which made them ready for our use, and, 
as we use them, we mingle with and become conscious 
of this common life of all.^ 

335. Modern Industry.— Modem industry has 
brought great armies of men into single organizations 

2. "Thus the citizen in a modern municipality no longer produces 
his own food or makes his own clothes; no longer protects his own life 
or property ; no longer fetches his own water ; no longer removes his own 
refuse or even disinfects his own dwelling. He no longer educates his 
own children or doctors and nurses his own invalids." — ^Webb : Industrial 
Democracy, Vol. II., p. 846. 

"For I repeat, the excellence of the social state does not lie in the 
fullness with which wealth is produced and accumulated, but in the fact 
that it is so distributed as to give the largest comfort and the widest 
hope to the general mass of those whose continued efforts constitute the 
present industry of the nation and the abiding prospect of its future 
well being." — ^Rogers: Work and Wages, p. 573. 



Chap. XX THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITY 259 

under single management. They work together at the 
same tasks, are answerable to the same authority; de- 
pend for their opportunity to live upon the same 
conditions; have learned the necessity of organization 
in order to withstand aggressions on the part of their 
employers, and so have learned a sense of common 
interest and common life. All the workers of the world 
are coming into this common relation to each other and 
are learning that there is no deliverance for any of 
them from capitalism anywhere, except all workers 
shall act together in the deliverance of all. In the 
beginning they were conscious of tribal relations. Aft- 
erwards they became conscious of national relations. 
The instinct of nationality has made workers of dif- 
ferent countries enemies to each other. They have 
seen no reason why the workers of one land should not 
consent to the oppression and starvation of the workers 
of other lands, provided that in so doing markets for 
themselves were made secure and employment regular 
and profitable. 

But international trade and the world-wide organ- 
ization of industry is making the workers race con- 
scious as well as class conscious, and will rapidly es- 
tablish this race consciousness as the strongest factor 
in the political activity of the workers everywhere.^ 

3. "If we announce that we will remove the present class state, 
then in order to meet the objections of our opponents we must also say 
that the social democracy, while it contends against the class state 
through the removal of the present form of production, will destroy the 
class struggle itself. Let the means of production become the possession 
of the community ; then the proletariat is no longer a class — as little as 
the bourgeoisie ; then classes will cease ; there will remain only society, a 
society of equals — ^true human society, mankind and humanity. 

"For that reason it has been stated in the plainest manner that 
we should not substitute one class rule for another. Only malice and 
thoughtlessness could incidentally put such a wrong construction on our 
meaning, for in order to rule, in order to be able to exercise rule, I 
must have possession in the means of production. My private property 
in the means of production is the preliminary condition for rule, and 
socialism removes personal private property in the means of production. 
Rule and exploitation in every form must be done away with, man be- 



260 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Pabt III 

336. Vital Race Relationships.— Again, modern 
science lias discovered and emphasized the oneness of 
all life. Not only are all living beings in some way 
interdependent, but all life which is has been derived 
from life that was. While science points ns backward 
to the humblest origin, it has demonstrated that all 
men everywhere, when subject to the same conditions, 
developed the same institutions. For it is now known 
that like causes produce like results in human life, the 
same as in all other fields where the operation of nat- 
ural law has been observed and studied. All human 
life is the same life, because, subject to the same condi- 
tions, it produces the same results. And hence, what 
religion has made a deep and controlling sentiment, 
what war has made a necessity, what trade has made 
inevitable, modern science has made known as a vital, 
living relationship. 

However long the world was waiting for the first 
drop of human blood, when it came it was alive. It 
was endowed with certain marvelous powers. It was 
able to repeat, through succeeding generations, the 
same forms of life, and to carry on, as characteristic of 
each new life, the qualities of each individual life 
through whose heart it had passed on its way. 

337. The Warm Blood-Current of the Race-Life.— 
The warm, red blood which lives in the hearts of all 
men bears with itself qualities which it has never lost, 
powers which it has continuously possessed during un- 
told centuries since it was first given its life during all 
of which time it has never once been cold, or chilled, 
or dead. From the loins of each generation it has 
leaped to the next, hot, and bearing with itself the life 
of all preceding centuries. Each generation is not a 



come free and equal, not master and servant, but comrades, brothers and 
sisters!"— Liebknecht: Socialism; What It Is and What It Seeks to 
Accomplish, p. 46. 



Chap. XX THE SENSE OF SOLIDAEITY 261 

new life just ^dsiting the world for the first time. It is 
the same old life, re-embodying and once more mani- 
festing itself in new and higher forms, unless exhausted 
by the excesses or made degenerate by the follies of its 
parentage. The waters of a mountain stream so mingle 
with each other that, no matter what torrents, or cur- 
rents, or eddies, or twists, or turns may be taken in its 
progress, the waters mingle with each other; and, sweet 
or bitter, clear or turbid, whatever is characteristic of 
any share of the current, speedily becomes a quality 
of the whole current itself. But no mountain stream 
has so mingled its waters as the sources of all life 
have mingled with each other in the movements of 
the centuries. The life we have was derived from the 
past. The life we live will be given to the future. All 
that the past has given as, all that we are, will deter- 
mine the life of tomorrow. 

In any effort to separate great families or tribes, no 
matter for how many centuries they may seem to suc- 
ceed, they are overwhelmed at last and swept on into 
the midst of the movement of the ages, either as a 
new force which has brightened and ennobled the life 
of all, or perchance as a group of degenerates whose 
separation has involved their own ruin, and whose re- 
turn can only injure the life of all so long as its weak 
\dtality may last. This life current, capitalism poisons, 
corrupts, taints with crime, robs of its vitality and 
smothers out of it every rising purpose of a higher life. 
Only Socialism can win for it protection from harm and 
freedom to move unhampered in its long ascent. 

338. United Testimony of the Sciences.— Thus the 
study of biology leads to the knowledge of the oneness 
of all life— to race-consciousness, to the sense of soli- 
darity. The same result follows the study of all the 
other sciences which deal with the facts of life or with 
the development of human institutions. Anthropolo^, 



262 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Pabt III 

or the study of the human race; ethnology, or the study 
of the separate races of men, and philology, or the 
study of the written and spoken languages of the race, 
all reveal the kinship of the races, which more and 
more bind them to each other and into a single world- 
wide race-life, while the study of sociology, or the laws 
of social growth, are more and more making plain the 
necessary interdependence of all men in a way which 
reinforces every personal interest by revealing its 
identity with the widest interests of all. 

Eeciprocity is a new word in politics, but it ex- 
presses an old fact in real life, and the wide study of 
these sciences and the rapid growth of the great body 
of facts which students in these fields are gathering is 
reinforcing the sense of race solidarity among students 
and teachers everywhere. 

339. The Poets and Prophets.— The poets and 
prophets of all ages have seen and have sung the unity 
of the race. In fact, it was the realization of this unity 
which made the poets and the prophets. They have 
spoken of the life of all, which is to be the life of all 
tomorrow, and which their wider vision realized for 
themselves as if it was the life of all already. 

Those with a narrower vision could not see, and 
therefore could not understand; and the prophets were 
stoned because they bluntly spoke of pictures which 
others could not see. 

The poets escaped stoning because, though they 
spoke of that same coming common life, their music so 
blended its chords and quickened its vibrations in the 
lives of all that all responded to the all-life which had 
made the poets. 

340. Industry and Politics Must Develop With Race 
Solidarity.— Now, human life can realize the unity of 
the race and so make possible the perfection of the in- 
dividual only by continuing the development which 



Chap. XX THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITY 263 

will give to common possession the matters of com- 
mon concern and protect from the interference of any 
those things which belong to the individual alone. But 
the trouble with the old society, the trouble with the 
whole line of ecclesiastical, political and industrial 
institutions, is that they have insisted, and still insist, 
on organizing and controlling the things which are of 
individual concern, and refuse to organize and to give 
to joint control those things which are the concern of 
all. But this is what the Socialists propose to do. 

341. The Highest Incentive to Action.— The old 
individual asked, *'If a man die, shall he live again?'' 
The new individual may not ignore the old question; 
but his chief concern will be with this question: If 
a man live, what shall be the life which by his exist- 
ence must become and remain a share of the world life 
forever?^ This sense of solidarity, this realization of 



4. "The social purpose is a humanized world composed of men and 
women and children, sound and accomplished and beautiful in body; 
intelligent and sympathetic in mind; reverent in spirit; living in an 
environment rich in the largest elements of use and beauty; and oc- 
cupying themselves with the persistent study and pursuit of perfection. 
In a word, the social purpose is human wealth. There is but one inter- 
est in life, and that is the human interest. All that makes for human 
wealth; for the sound, strong, beautiful, accomplished organism; for 
an enlarged and rationalized conception of nature ; for the unfolding and 
perfecting of the human spirit — all this is light; and all that makes 
against human wealth, however, sanctioned by law and custom, plati- 
tudes and prejudice, — all this is darkness. Education is simply the prac- 
tical process by which we realize this social purpose and acquire human 
wealth. The social purpose is frankly avaricious of the utmost possible 
amount of good fortune ; and this divine greed can only be satisfied when 
as a society, we deliberately and consciously resolve to make the very 
best out of every individual, to make him highly endowed, to make him 
superior even to the full measure of his capacity. A nation which fails 
to do this fails to realize the social purpose, and must still be accounted 
barbarous. It has not yet come into conscious harmony with the great 
esthetic world-process. Looking over the earth today one sees a goodly 
and an increasing company of delightf ifl, cultivated, social, human people ; 
but one does not see a single nation that is other than barbarous. Even 
America, the greatest of them all, is not yet social, has not yet thrown 
herself unreservedly into the pursuit of human wealth. We make a 
fetish of the public school with its cheap information and shop-keeping 
accomplishments, but we have not yet conceived of human life as a moral 
and esthetic revelation of the universe nor of education as a practical 



264 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

the common life of man, this entering into companion- 
ship with all the past and into paternal relations with 
all the future, this unity and identity of interest be- 
tween the individual and the race to which he belongs, 
furnish a basis for the highest character— an incen- 
tive for the greatest achie^^ements.^ It sounds the call 
for the only real heroism of modern times.^ 

342. Capitalism Outgrown.— But this sense of 
solidarity, this sense of brotherhood, this oneness of the 
race life, in which each individual is carrying within 
himself all the achievements of the past and all the 
promise of the future, can never express itself in 



process of entering into this tremendous possession. Even the bounty 
of nature, the indisputable heritage of the collective nation, her fields and 
forests, oil wells and coal mines, mineral deposits and stone quarries, 
water power and roadways, — all this is handed over to the crude minis- 
tration of profit, and the majority of America's children are reduced to 
the position of wage-takers and servants, with little time or strength or 
heart for the carrying out of the true social purpose, the pursuit of the 
higher human wealth. The bulk of our laws have to do with merchan- 
dise and real estate. The few that concern themselves with man are 
mainly prohibitive, the things that he may not do. The realization of 
the social purpose demands k more positive ideal than this." — ^Hender- 
son: Education and Life, pp. 48***50. 

5. "Every being who is not monocellular is sure to have something 
good in him, because he is a society in embryo, and a society does not 
subsist without a certain equilibrium, a mutual balance of activities. 
Further, the monocellular being itself would become plural if more com- 
pletely analyzed; nothing in the universe is simple; now, every one 
who is complex has always more or less solidarity with other beings. 
Man, being the most complex being we know of, has also more solidarity 
with respect to others. Moreover, he is the being with most conscious- 
ness of that solidarity. Now, he is the best who has most consciousness 
of his solidarity with other beings and the universe." — Guyau: Educa- 
tion and Heredity, p. 33. 

6. "The most unfortunate fact in the history of human develop- 
ment is the fact that the rational faculty so far outstripped the moral 
.sentiments. This is really because moral sentiments require such a 

high degree of reasoning power. The intuitive reason which is purely 
egoistic, is almost the earliest manifestation of the directive agent and 
requires only a low degree of the faculty of reasoning. But sym- 
pathy requires a power of putting one's self in the place of another, 
of representing to self the pains of others. When this power is ac- 
quired it causes a reflex of the represented pain to self, and this re- 
flected pain felt by the person representing it becomes more and more 
acute and unendurable as the representation becomes more vivid and 
as the general organization becomes more delicate and refined. This 
high degree was far from being attained by man at the early stage 



Chap. XX THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITY 265 

economic and industrial relations while capitalism 
lasts, because capitalism arrays one against another, 
and attempts to maintain as matters of individual con- 
cern those things upon which all must depend for their 
existence/ The monopoly, tyranny and inequality of 
capitalism are directly at war with this growing sense 
of solidarity of the race.^ 

343. Socialism and Solidarity.— On the other hand, 
this sense of race solidarity could not become the force 
it is in the life of man without directly suggesting the 
collectivism, democracy and equality which alone can 



with which we are now dealing. Vast ages must elapse before it is 
reached even in its simplest form. And yet the men of that time knew 
their own wants and possessed much intelligence of ways of satisfy- 
ing them. We need not go back to savage times to find this difference 
between egoistic and altruistic reason. We see it constantly in mem- 
bers of civilized society who are capable of murdering innocent per- 
sons for a few dollars with which they expect to gratify a passion 
or satisfy some personal want. It is true in this sense that a criminal 
is a survival from savagery. Civilization may indeed be measured by 
the capacity of men for suffering representative pain and their efforts 
t(J relieve it." — W^ard: Pure Sociology, p. 346. 

"The industrial reformation for which western Europe groans and 
travails, and the advent of which is indicated by so many symptoms 
though it will come only as the fruit of faithful and sustained ef- 
fort), will be no isolated fact, but will form part of an applied art of 
life, modifying our whole environment, affecting our whole culture, 
and regulating our whole conduct — in a word, directing all our re- 
sources to the one great end of the conservation and development of 
Humanity." — Ingram: History of Political Economy, p. 246. 

7. "As militancy first compelled national unity, so the warring 
factions of industrialism are being forced into protective alliances. 
This is the purport of the latest phase of social evolution. If under 
modern conditions fifty men can feed a thousand and another fifty can 
clothe them, the struggle for existence has ceased; there should now 
be enough peaceful leisure for all to develop the best that is in them." 
Flint and Hill: The Trust — Its Book, Introduction, p. 35. 

8. "Development in society involves the possibility of indefinite 
development in man. It assumes that man has not exhausted his 
physical or his intellectual or his spiritual powers. The spiritual 
terms carry with them the physical ones; the body can and must keep 
pace with the mind. There is at no point any indication of any in- 
abilty to go farther. The spiritual affections, the wise and just senti- 
ments which unite us to our fellow men, are plainly incipient. We are 
only finding the field which lies before them, not reaching its limits. 

"Social evolution also postulates the possibility of indefinite 
progress in society. It assumes that there is a bottom (and ultimate- 
ly) no clash of interests; that existing difficulties are the result 



266 THE EVOLtTION OF SOCIALISM Part IH 

satisfy, in industry and commerce, this sense of race 
solidarity.^ This sense of solidarity must make mat- 
ters of common dependence subject to the common con- 
trol. It must deliver the individual to himself. It 
must deliver him from economic pressure by making 
those things which concern the existence of all subject 
to the control of all. Then no individual will any longer 
be dependent on any other individual for the means of 
life, or for the opportunity to create the means of life. 
But that is Socialism. Hence, the development of the 
sense of solidarity of the race has been an important 
factor in the development of Socialism. It could not 
advance and fail to suggest what the Socialists pro- 
pose.^^ 
344. Capitalism the Builder of Socialism.— Capital- 



of deficient knowledge, defective feeling, and may pass away. They 
are simply the chaos that evolution is to rule into creation. There is 
no real, no permanent, self-sacrifice in progress. The well-being of all 
means the highest well-being of each. We save ourselves by losing 
them." — Bascom: Social Theory, pp. 528-29. 

9. "We shall pass from class paternalism, originally derived from 
fetish fiction in times of universal ignorance, to human brotherhood 
in accordance with the nature of things and our growing knowledge 
of it; from political government to industrial administration; from 
competition in individualism to individuality in co-operation; from 
war and despotism, in any form, to peace and liberty." — Thomas Car- 
lyle, Quoted by Davidson, The Annals of Toil, p. 233. 

10. "The belief that with the stoppage of war, could it be achieved, 
national vigor must decay, is based on a complete failure to recognize 
that the lower form of struggle is stopped for the express purpose 
and with the necessary result that the higher struggle shall become 
possible. With the cessation of war, whatever is really vital and valu- 
able in nationality does not perish; on the contrary, it grows and 
thrives as it could not do before, when the national spirit out of 
which it grows was absorbed in baser sorts of struggle. 

"Internationalism is no more opposed to the true purposes of nation- 
alism than socialism within the nation, rightly guided, is hostile to 
individualism. The problem and its solution are the same. We socialize 
in order that we may individuate; we cease fighting with bullets in 
order to fight with ideas. 

"All the essentials of the biological struggle for life are retained, 
the incentive to individual vigor, the intensity of the struggle, the 
elimination of the unfit and the survival of the fittest. 

"The struggle has become more rational in mode and purpose and 
result, and reason is only a higher form of nature." Hobson: Im- 
perialism, pp. 199-200. 



CHAP. THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITY 267 

ism has had its share even in this growth of the sense 
of solidarity of the race. It has helped to create the 
great institutions in industry and to carry on great 
enterprises in commerce, which in turn have helped to 
enlarge, if not create, the very forces which must over- 
throw capitalism and establish institutions greater and 
freer than can be built under capitalism. And these 
new institutions will give us a selfhood more complete 
and more absolute, whose greatness will realize not 
only the individuality of single human beings, but the 
fullest sense of solidarity of race interests and of race- 
life. 

345. Summary.— 1. In the beginning man had no 
sense of the race life. Neither had he any sufficient 
appreciation of the individual. 

2. The earliest life was the tribal life, which 
neither recognized the relation of the individual to 
the race, nor gave any proper scope to the selfhood of 
the individual within the tribe. 

3. The earliest movement towards the world life 
was the wars between the tribes, which finally led to 
the establishment of the ancient military despotisms. 
The great religions closely followed the great con- 
quests and helped, in a large degree, to teach the les- 
son of the oneness of the race. 

4. World-wide trade has broken over all race lines 
and national boundaries and brought the individual 
into direct relations with the whole race of man. 

5. Great industries have compelled great companies 
of men to work together and to realize their com- 
mon dependence and so to come to the discovery of a 
common life interest. 

6. Modem science has shown that like causes pro- 
duce like results in human affairs the same as in all 
other fields where the operations of natural law have 



268 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

been observed and studied. Students of these affairs 
are made conscious of the race solidarity. 

7. The realization of the race life cannot come un- 
der capitalism. Every effort to satisfy this race life 
is a step in the evolution of Socialism. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Give conditions of primitive life which made impossible any 
sense of the race life. 

2. Show relations of individuals to tribal life. 

3. By what process were the tribal lines broken down and the 
individuals within and a larger world force without finally recognized? 

4. How have the great religions affected the race life? 

5. In what way has trade advanced the sense of oneness of all life ? 

6. How has the study of natural law affected the conceptions of 
the race life? 

7. Explain how transmission of life from generation to generation 
intermingles all life, making all life one. 

8. What services have the poets and prophets rendered in this 
connection ? 

9. Why were the prophets stoned, and why did the poets escape? 

10. How will Socialism save the individual from interference in 
personal matters, and at the same time extend and satisfy the sense of 
solidarity ? 

11. How is this sense of solidarity related to character, and why 
does the continuous surrender to capitalism make impossible the highest 
character in those who become conscious of this oneness of the race life ? 

12. What share has Capitalism had in the growth of the sense of 
solidarity of the race — and so in the evolution of Socialism? 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 

343. The Economic Classes.— The existence of eco- 
nomic classes cannot be seriously denied. It is admit- 
ted that serious efforts have been made to abolish 
economic classes, but the steps taken have been insuf- 
ficient and at each new turn in the evolution of society 
the economic classes have so far remained, and must 
remain until the economic causes which perpetuate the 
economic classes are removed. 

Fraternities, churches, brotherhoods, literature, art, 
the noblest sentiments, can never do away with the 
economic classes, so long as economic inequality of 
opportunity shall continue to produce the master and 
the servant, the millionaire and the tramp, ^^the bond- 
holders and the vagabonds, '' the shirkers and the 
workers, those ^^who live without working, and those 
who work without living. '* 

344. Fixing the Class Lines.— There are many 
classes of exploiters. There are many classes of work- 
ers. But the class lines of importance in economic con- 
troversies are not the lines between different classes of 
exploiters or between different classes of workers. The 
lines are clear enough between those ^^who plant vine- 

269 



270 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

yards and do not eat the fruit thereof and those who 
do no planting, but do the eating nevertheless. The 
lines are clear enough between those who ^* build 
houses and others inhabit/' and those who build no 
houses, but inhabit those which others build. The lines 
are clear enough between those who produce wealth 
which they are not permitted to enjoy and those who 
enjoy the products of others, but neither produce any- 
thing nor render any service of any sort or of any 
value to anyone. The line is clear enough between 
those who get something for nothing and those who 
get nothing for something.^ 

In the chapter on *'The Middle Class and Socialism" 
will be discussed those capitalists who are also work- 
ers and those workers who are also capitalists; but for 
the purposes of this chapter we may safely follow the 
broad lines here indicated. 

348. All Wars Class Wars.— All of the conflicts of 
history have been class conflicts. This does not mean 
that classes were created in order to carry on the strife. 
It means that large groups of people having common 
interests have foimd that they could not best serve 
these interests without coming into conflict with other 
groups, and this conflict of interests has been the occa- 
sion of the conflict of classes whose interests were op- 
posed. The philosophy of the class struggle is a direct 

1. "If we examine attentively the societies developing at the pres- 
ent day in the civilized countries in the old and new worlds, they 
present (we find) one common phenomenon: absolutely and irrevoc- 
ably all of them fall into two distinct and separate classes; one class 
accumulates in idleness enormous and ever-increasing revenues, the 
other, far more numerous, labors life long for miserable wages; one 
class lives without working, the other works without living — without 
living a life, at least, worthy of the name. When confronted by so 
marked and so painful a contrast, the question must at once occur to 
every mind that reflects: Is this sad state of affairs the result of inher- 
ent necessity; inseparable from the organic conditions of human nature; 
or Is it merely the outcome of certain histoTical tendencies that are 
destined to disappear at a later sta'ge of social evolution?" — ^Loria: 
Eco'rio'mlc Foundations of Society, p. 1. 



Chap. XXI THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 271 

denial that the struggle for existence is a struggle 
of individuals only. It is simply the recognition of 
collectivism in the struggle for existence. Either the 
whole scope of the collective struggle for existence 
must be denied, or the class struggle, the struggle to- 
gether and for each other, of those whose interests 
in the struggle for existence are found to be the same, 
and against all others whose interests are in conflict, 
must be admitted. One collectivity has struggled 
against another collectivity because of the question of 
survival, not of individuals only, but of whole classes 
of individuals. 

349. Conflicts Between the Exploiters.— There have 
been many struggles in the past when the conflict was 
to determine which of the two contending groups 
should be permitted to exploit a third group whose 
interests were a matter of no concern to either of the 
contending parties. Probably the wars of Cromwell 
are as clear a case of a hotly contested battle between 
economic classes for the opportunity to exploit a third 
and neglected economic class, which, while not repre- 
sented by either side in the conflict, were the economic 
victims of the victors whichever way the tide of battle 
turned. The world powers contending with each other 
for the markets of the Orient is a good illustration of 
this sort of conflict. While the contending parties all 
belong to the same economic class of exploiters, they 
have, nevertheless, conflicting economic interests in the 
struggle to determine which ones of the exploiting 
countries shall have the best chance at the country 
which all hold in the same regard as a hawk may be 
supposed to hold its prey. Russia and England find it 
hard to be friends, not because either '^has anything 
against the other, ' ^ but because each desires the largest 
possible share of Chinese . resources and markets, and 
whatever either secures the othier cannot have. 



272 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

350. Ruling Classes and Prevailing Morals.— What- 
ever country secures control of any particular portion 
of the Eastern territory, immediately the institutions, 
laws, usages and morals of that territory will proceed 
to take the form of the new ruling class. 

So long as class rule remains the ruling institutions, 
laws, usages and morals of any given country will be 
those of the ruling class of that country. This is only 
another way of saying that in the struggle for existence 
a is always true that those which survive are the ones 
which survive. In the economic class struggle the class 
which has been the master in the control of the means 
of life has been the ruling class, and the working class 
has been able to survive only as the servants of these 
exploiting masters since the original creation of eco- 
nomic class lines. 

351. The Evolution of the Class Struggle.— In the 

discussion of primitive life, and particularly in follow- 
ing the order of human progress under primitive insti- 
tutions, it was discovered that there were no eco- 
nomic class struggles either in savagery or in barbar- 
ism. The economic class war made its beginning in 
the world as the result of barbarian wars of conquest. 
It began with the beginning of slavery. It changed 
form in the interest of the master class to serfdom, and 
finally, in the interest of the same master class, into the 
wage system. The struggle has been followed from its 
beginning with the beginning of civilization, through 
the various forms of servitude, including capitalism, 
down to the present. Today capitalism is both the 
economic and political expression of the interests of 
the masters, while Socialism is equally the economic 
and political expression of the interests of the toilers. 

352. Conflicting Economic Interests.— So long as 
capiitalism remains the workers can be workers only 



Chap. XXI THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 273 

with the consent of the idlers. They cannot manage 
their own industries. They cannot fix their own hours 
of labor. They cannot determine either the terms or 
the conditions under which they labor. They cannot 
appropriate to their own use the products of their own 
toil. 

If the workers are to be given joint ownership in the 
means of production, equal voice in the management 
of the industries and equal opportunity to become 
workers, then capitalism must necessarily cease.^ 

The struggle of capitalism to perpetuate itself is not 
a struggle to defend old rights or to protect old inter- 
ests. It is an effort to continue to control the labor of 
others and to continue to appropriate the products of 
others. 

The co-operative commonwealth cannot be estab- 
lished without the burial of capitalism. The workers 
cannot increase their share of their products without 
diminishing the share of the capitalists. 

2. "Of all the intellectual difficulties of individualism, the greatest, 
perhaps, is that which is presented by the constant flux of things. 
Whatever may be the advantages and the conveniences of the present 
state of society, we are, at any rate, all of us, now sure of one thing— 
that it can not last. 

"We have learnt to think of social institutions and economic rela- 
tions as being as much the subjects of constant change and evolution 
as any biological organism. The main outlines of social organization, 
based upon the exact sphere of private ownership in England today, 
did not 'come down from the Mount.' " 

"The very last century has seen an almost complete upsetting of 
every economic and industrial relation in the country, and it is irra- 
tional to assume that the existing social order, thus new-created, is 
destined inevitably to endure in its main features unchanged and 
unchangeable. History did not stop with the last gTeat convulsion of 
the Industrial Revolution, and Time did not then suddenly cease to 
be the great Innovator. ***** Thus, it is the constant flux 
of things which underlies all the 'difficulties' of individualism. What- 
ever we may think of the existing social order, one thing is certain — 
namely, that it wall undergo modification in the future as certainly and 
as steadily as in the past. Those modifications will be partly the 
result of forces not consciously initiated or directed by human will. 
Partly, however, the modifications will be the results, either intended 
or unintended, of deliberate attempts to readjust the social environment 
to suit man's real or fancied needs. It is therefore not a question of 
whether the existing social order shall be changed, but of how this 
inevitable change shall be made." — ^Webb: Problems of Modern Indus- 
ttfi pp. 229-3b. 



274 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

As the workers cannot increase the share they are 
getting, to say nothing of appropriating the total pro- 
duct of their industries— which is justly theirs— with- 
out directly antagonizing the interests of the capital- 
ists, there is, consequently, no way by which these 
questions can be fought out "to a finish" along any 
other line than the line of the mutual antagonisms re- 
sulting from these necessarily conflicting interests be- 
tween the workers and the idlers. 

353. Class Consciousness.— To see clearly that two 
great economic classes have existed in history, that 
they still exist— to be aware of the conflict of interests 
between these classes, that is, between the exploiters 
and the victims of the exploitation— to realize one's 
identity with his own class, is a necessary condition to 
taking one's most effective part on either side of this 
class struggle; and this is what is meant by being- 
class conscious. 

354. ''States of Consciousness.''— John Fiske says 
that "Life in the animal world is a series of states of 
consciousness. ' ' Any organism is alive just in propor- 
tion as it is conscious, and in that proportion only will 
it struggle for existence. It is true that one may be 
class conscious with but a slight degree of conscious- 
ness. One may know and realize that there are eco- 
nomic classes without intensely feeling his own iden- 
tity of interest with either class. He may have a 
shadowy sort of consciousness without having a real- 
ization of the matter and of the necessity of this eco- 
nomic class war. 

One may be conscious of some disorder in his own 
physical constitution. This disorder may be really 
fatal, but the victim will not rise to the death-struggle 
unless he is not only conscious of the disorder, but 
conscious of the very serious danger of his malady. 
One stupefied with drink has a fofm of consciotisness 



Chap. XXI THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 275 

and will make some effort to protect himself, but he 
cannot be as practical, as careful, as effective, as if 
wholly in possession of himself , as if in a more perfect 
state of consciousness. A sleeping child can protect 
itself but little, if at all. It comes into more effective- 
ness in the struggle for existence when half awake. 
Only when wide awake, however, can it use to the 
utmost its powers of self-preservation. This holds in 
the life of groups and classes as well as in all other 
forms of organic existence. The working class, un- 
conscious of its solidarity, unconscious of its power, 
unconscious of its relations to the exploiters, may be 
said to be in the sleeping stage of class consciousness. 
It is not enough that the worker shall be half awake. 
He must be altogether awake. He must altogether 
realize his relations to his fellows, and how he is re- 
lated to the strugglers in this struggle of economic 
classes, and how vitally essential to his own welfare is 
the triumph of his class.^ 

3. "While modern plutocracy is not a form of government in the 
same sense that the other forms mentioned are, it is, nevertheless, 
easy to see that its power is as great as any government has ever 
wielded. The test of governmental power is usually the manner in 
which it taxes the people, and the strongest indictments ever drawn 
up against the worst forms of tyranny have been those which recited 
the oppressive methods of extorting tribute. But tithes are regarded as 
oppressive, and a fourth part of the yield of any industry would 
justify a revolt. Yet today there are many commodities for which the 
people pay two or three times as much as would cover the cost of pro- 
duction, transportation and exchange at" fair wages and fair profits. 
The monopolies in many lines actually tax the consumer from 25 to 75 
per cent of the real value of the goods. Imagine an excise tax that 
should approach these figures! It was shown in Chapter XXXIII that 
under the operation of either monopoly or aggressive competition the 
price of everything is pushed up to the maximum limit that will be 
paid for the commodity in profitable quantities, and this wholly irrespec- 
tive of the cost of production. No government in the world has now, or 
ever has had, the power to enforce such an extortion as this. It is a 
governing power in the interests of favored individuals, which exceeds 
that of the most powerful monarch or despot that ever wielded a 
scepter. ***** 

"The individual has reigned long enough. The day has come for 
society to take its affairs into its own hands and shape ' its own 
destiniiBS. The individual has acted as best he could. He has acted 
in the only way he could. With a conscibusniess, will, and intellect of 



276 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

355. The Irrepressible Warfare.— The age-long 
class war is nearing a final crisis; and in that final 
conflict all those who are willing to serve in any way 
will be found together, and all those who exact ser- 
vice, or wish to exact service, for which they wish to 
render no corresponding service in return— all these 
will be found together. And between these two classes 
the economic and political battle must be fought out 
^*to a finish.'* There can be no compromise in the 
nature of the case. Nothing but unconditional sur- 
render can end the war. If the workers surrender, 
nothing but the continuance of dependence and poverty 
can come to them as a result while capitalism lasts, 
and the collapse of capitalism will come just the same. 

If capitalism does not surrender, its collapse cannot 
be avoided by any victory which it can possibly gain 
over the working people. If capitalism does surrender, 
as sooner or later it must surrender, the workers will 
become the masters, but as all men and women must 
then become useful people, serving others if they ex- 
pect the service of others, economic class lines must 
disappear at once and for all time. 

The economic class lines established in the world by 
the misfortune of barbarian wars, perpetuated through 
out the whole period of civilization by the force of the 
military, which now condemns the workers to condi- 
tions to which they would never submit, were the tasks 



his own iie could do nothing else than pursue his natural ends. He 
should not be denounced nor called names. He should not even be 
blamed. Nay, he should be praised, and even imitated. Society should 
learn its great lesson from him, should follow the path he has so clearly 
laid out that leads to success. It should imagine itself an individual, 
with all the interests of an individual, and becoming fully conscious 
of these interests it should pursue them with the same indomitable will 
with which the individual pursues his interests. Not only this, it must 
be guided, as he is guided, by the social intellect, armed with all the 
knowledge that all individuals combined, with so great labor, zeal, and 
talent, have placed in its possession, constituting the social intelli- 
gence."— Ward: Psychic FactoTs of Civilization, pp. 322 * * * 24. 



Chap. XXI THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 27r 

of the toilers once free from the guards of the soldiers 
—this age-long class war will end with the triumph of 
the working class. 

356. The Evolution of Socialism.— It was the com- 
ing of slavery, the result of barbarian wars and the 
earliest form of capitalism, which brought into exist- 
ence the economic class struggle. Every step in the 
development of modern capitalism has intensified the 
conflict of interests between the beneficiaries of cap- 
italism and the victims of capitalism. So long as cap- 
italism lasts this conflict of interests must remain. 
So long as the interests of these economic classes are 
opposed to each other, so long these classes must be 
at war and cannot be at peace. No possible victory 
of capitalism can end the conflict of interests and so 
end the class war. Every blow that is struck in this 
class war is making more evident, and in the end must 
make it absolutely clear to all men, that only by end- 
ing capitalism can this age-long warfare of economic 
classes be ended also. It is becoming equally clear 
that the only way to make an end of capitalism is to 
make a beginning of Socialism. And hence, the crea- 
tion of economic classes by capitalism and the pitiless 
class war under capitalism becomes a factor of the 
first importance in the evolution of Socialism. And 
Socialism is the final working program of the working 
man's side of this age-long economic class war. 

357. Summary.— 1. Economic classes do exist. 

2. The economic class war is the result of the con- 
flict of the economic interests of the economic classes. 

3. The master class is always the class in control 
of economic opportunities. 

4. The class which is dependent on others for eco- 
nomic opportunities will be dependent in all other re- 
lations. 



278 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Paet III 

5. The class war cannot be ended so long as con- 
flicting economic interests remain. 

6. The working class cannot bring industrial peace 
by any surrender it can possibly make because con- 
flicting economic interests will still remain. 

7. The master class cannot avoid disaster by any 
victory it can gain over the working class. Mutual 
strife among the masters will continue the process of 
mutual self-destruction. 

8. Equal economic opportunity for all men will end 
the class war by removing the cause of the existence 
of economic classes. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Describe the economic classes. 

2. What is characteristic of all the wars? 

3. Give instances of economic wars between members of the 
master class. 

4. Give an account of the evolution of the economic class struggle - 

5. Can the class war cease and capitalism continue? 

6. What is meant by class consciousness? 

7. Can there be degrees of class consciousness? 

8. How many sides will be engaged in the final conflict of the 
economic class war? 

9. What will end the economic class struggle? 

10. How is Socialism related to this economic class struggle? 



CHAPTEE XXn 

THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM AND THE TRIUMPH OF 
SOCIALISM 

358. The Inevitable Collapse.— It lias been seen in 
Chapter XI how inevitable is the collapse of capital- 
ism. It is the purpose here to show that the collapse 
of capitalism is not more inevitable than the triumph 
of Socialism is certain. 

Capitalism must finally collapse because, first, when 
a single group of owners own the earth, it will be im- 
possible for them to re-invest their profits. Profits in 
excess of personal expenditures which cannot be re-in- 
vested but must accumulate, can be of no advantage 
to their possessors. Second, capitalism must collapse 
because when all the world becomes one work-shop— 
as well as one market— there can then be no outside 
market for the products which the workers produce 
but cannot buy, and which their employers own but 
cannot consume. And finally, capitalism must col- 
lapse because, when all of the dominant industrial 
activities of the world are under a single centralized 
ownership, the management of these industries can 
no longer employ th^ workers in producing goods 
which they cannot sell, nor in earning profits which 
they cannot re-invest. 

279 



280 THE EVOLUTION OP SOCIALISM Part III 

359. If Capitalism Remains.— If capitalism must re- 
main after it has wrought its service and accomplished 
its work and reached the end of all possible devel- 
opment under that method of organization and man- 
agement of the industries,— then the distress of the 
workers must be world-wide and most appalling, while 
all interest and incentive for the capitalist under cap- 
italism must utterly fail because the game has been 
played *^to a finish" and further activity or achieve- 
ment in the line of capitalism is utterly impossible. 

360. Need Not Remain.— But capitalism does not 
need to remain. Having conquered the earth, the des- 
potic military organization of the work-shop, the mar- 
ket and the government, will be no longer necessary, 
for the age-long period of conquest will have reached 
its consummation. There will be no more worlds to 
conquer. This will be true in war, in politics, in trade, 
—and the co-operative commonwealth must certainly 
follow. The world-conauest will have prepared the 
way. 

361. Failure of Incentive Under Capitalism.— The 
swords and spears of capitalism, no longer needed in 
the work of conquest, must then reinforce the pruning 
hooks and ploughshares of productive industry. But 
if this be true, then production must be carried on for 
some other purpose than for profits. Goods must be 
produced, not in order that they may be sold, in order 
that more goods may be bought, in order that more 
goods may be sold, for when this process has bought 
and sold the earth, the interest in accumulation must 
cease and with it the game itself.^ 

362. Producing for the Products.— But goods may 
be produced, even then, for the use of the producers. 

1. **It is indeed certain that industrial society will not perma- 
nently remain without a systematic organization. The mere conflict 
of private interests will never produce a well-ordered commonwealth 
of labor." — Ingram: History of Political Economy, p. 244. 



Chap. XXII THE TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM 281 

Goods produced not in order that they may be used 
but in order that they may be sold, are called commod- 
ities. Today the whole earth is given over to the pro- 
duction of commodities. But in primitive production 
goods were produced not to be sold in the market but 
to be stored in the tribal storehouse against the day 
of need. The Pueblo Indians to this day carry a stock 
of two years' provisions in excess of their needs. And 
if, for any reason, the stock falls below this limit, 
immediately all tribesmen are put on rations until the 
two years' surplus is restored. Here is a motive for 
industry which does not involve producing for a mar- 
ket, but simply involves producing for human needs. 

363. Filling the Store-house and Leisure for All.— 
A^Hien capitalistic conquest shall have made the world 
into one work-shop and into one market-place, and 
cannot any longer produce for the sake of the market, 
in order to enlarge the market which will then have 
been enlarged to its utmost limit, we shall not need to 
abandon the store-houses ; we shall not need to abandon 
the shops. We can fill them with goods as they have 
never been filled, only the goods will belong to the 
producers and will be theirs for their own use. 

Production will not need to stop because there will 
no longer be a foreign market for the goods nor invest- 
ments for profits from the surplus which the workers 
produce but cannot buy. Goods can be produced for 
the world's store-house. The race will not need to live 
within a few months of the line of starvation. The 
power of the workers to take goods out of the store- 
house can be made equal to their service in putting 
goods into the store-house. And when production has 
been carried beyond both the current need and *Hhe 
rainy day," the hours of labor may be shortened and 
leisure placed within the reach of all. 

The exploiter, unable to privately appropriate the 



282 -THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Pabt III 

products of others and then dispose of the products 
so appropriated, must become himself a producer for 
use along with the rest. 

When private capitalism owns the earth and cannot 
use it, the people of the earth will be able both to use 
it and to provide some way by which they may own it 
in order that they may use it.^ 

364. End of Monopoly, Tyranny and Inequality.— 
Wherever despotism has collapsed, democracy has 
been re-established. When the despotism of trade 
shall have collapsed, democracy will reassert itself in 
the shops and store-houses of the world. When the 
inequality which has been created by industry whose 
motive has been conquest, finds the groups of the 
workers democratically managing the means of pro- 
duction, it is impossible that any will be excluded. 
When capitalism, which has been the oppressor and 
the robber and the master of all, shall give up the 
keys to the earth's treasures, and surrenders its place 
of mastery, it is impossible to conceive of the surren- 
der being made to any share of the workers less than 
to all alike. 

The collapse of capitalism means the end of monop- 
oly in ownership, the end of petty personal tyranny in 
management and the end of inequality of opportunity, 
—all of which are essential and necessary parts of cap- 
italism. 

Collectivism is the only possible alternative from 
monopoly; democracy the only possible alternative 

2. "Marxian Socialists are not prophets. 

"Our sincere wish, is that the social revolution, when its evolution 
shall be ripe, may be effected peacefully, as so many other revolutions 
have been without bloodshed — like the English Revolution, which pre- 
ceded by a century, with its Bill of Rights, the French Revolution; 
like the Italian Revolution in Tuscany in 1859; like the Brazilian Revo- 
lution, with the exile of the Emperor Dom Pedro, in 1892. 

"It is certain that Socialism, by spreading education and culture 
among the people, by organizing the workers into a class -conscious 
party imder its banner, is only increasing the probability of the ful- 
fillment of our hope." — Ferri: Socialism and Modern Science, p. 153. 



Chap. XXII THE TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM 283 

from tyranny; equality the only possible remedy for 
the wrong of inequality. Collectivism, democracy 
equality,— the collective ownership, democratic man- 
agement and equal opportunity in the use of the col- 
lectively owned means of producing the means of life, 
—is the next order in the affairs of the race. 

365. Conclusion.— The evolution, culmination and 
collapse of capitalism are parts of the processes of 
the evolution of Socialism. The evolution of Socialism 
as related to the evolution of capitalism is simply the 
larger whole comprising the smaller part. The evolu- 
tion of Socialism is vastly more extended in time, more 
comprehensive in the number arid importance of the 
interests involved and in its culmination, in the inau- 
guration of the co-operative commonwealth, it will 
carry over to this social successor of capitalism all 
that had been achieved before capitalism, all that has 
been achieved by capitalism and all that has been 
achieved by all other social factors and forces exist- 
ing under capitalism, so far as the things which have 
been achieved can be of any further social service in 
the struggle for existence.^ The race life, escaping 
from capitalism and entering into Socialism, will not 
only continue its evolution under new conditions, but 
will at last escape from the monopoly, tyranny and 
inequality of capitalism, resulting from the ignorance 

3. "As long as the structure and the volume of the center of crys- 
tallization, the germ, or the embryo, increase gradually, we have a 
gradual and continuous process of evolution, which must be followed at 
a definite stage by a process of revolution, more or less prolonged, 
represented, for example, by the separation of the entire crystal from 
the mineral mass which surrounds it, or by certain revolutionary phases 
of vegetable or animal life, as for example, the moment of sexual 
reproduction.; ***** 

"These same processes also occur in the human world. By evolution 
must be understood the transformation that takes place day by day, 
which is almost unnoticed, but continuous and inevitable; by revolution, 
the critical and decisive movement, more or less prolonged, of an evolu- 
tion that has reached its concluding phase; ***** 

"It must be remarked, in the first place, that while revolution and 
evolution are normal functions of social physiology, rebellion and 



284 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALISM Part III 

and strife of the childhood of the race,— but at last out- 
grown. And then: Brotherhood. 

366. Summary.— 1. The economic class struggle is 
caused by a conflict of economic interests. 

2. The economic class struggle is between the bene- 
ficiaries and the victims of capitalism. 

3. Economic classes must necessarily exist under 



individual violence are symptoms of social pathology." — Ferri: Social- 
ism and Modern Science, pp. 139-40. 

"This is not mere sentimentality; it is the logical outcome of 
forces always at work within and around us. Just as there has come 
a time when, on this continent at least, war has given all of good that 
it has to give, so is there coming a time when competition — which is 
industrial war — will have conferred on the nation all its possible benefits. 
A perfected system of co-operation is the promise to civilized mankind 
of existing tendencies." — The Trust: Its Book (Flint, Hill, etc.), Intro- 
duction, pp. 32-35. 

"No mind in our civilization has, in all probability, as yet imagined 
the full possibilities of the collective organization — under the direction 
of a highly centralized and informed intelligence acting under the 
sense of responsibility here described — of all the activities of industry 
and production, moving steadily towards the goal of the endowment of 
all human capacities in a free conflict of forces. It is only necessary 
for the observer who has once grasped the meaning of the development 
described in the preceding chapters to stand at almost any point in the 
life of the English-speaking world of the present day to realize how far 
society has, in a eality, moved beyond that conception of its joint effort 
which prevailed in the early period of the competitive era — the con- 
ception of the state as an irresponsible and almost brainless Colossus, 
organized primarily towards the end of securing men in possession of 
the gains they had obtained in an uncontrolled scramble for gain 
divorced from all sense of responsibility. 

Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the peoples who have lived 
through this phase of the competitive process, and amongst whom such 
competition as has prevailed has achieved the highest results, will start 
towards the new era with a great advantage in their favor. For it 
must be expected that, where the development in progress continues 
to be efficiently maintained, the new system will succeed the old, 
not by force or coercion, but by its own merits; and, in conditions 
in which it will become the increasing function of an informed and 
centralized system of public opinion to hold continually before the 
general mind through all the phases of public activity — local, social, 
political, and international — the character of the principles governing 
the epoch of development on which we have entered; and to see that 
the benefits accruing from the era of competition through which we 
have lived shall be retained and increased for society by compelling 
the new social order to make its way simply on its merits in free 
and fair rivalry with those activities of private effort which it is 
destined to supersede." — Kidd: Principles of Western Civilization, 
p. 480 and preceding. 



Chap. XXII THE TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM 285 

capitalism. Withoiit economic classes there is no cap- 
italism. 

4. So long as capitalism continues the economic 
class struggle must continue. 

5. The collapse of capitalism will end the conflict 
of economic interests. 

6. The coming of Socialism will provide for the 
continuance of industry without the exploitation of 
the workers and, hence, with no conflict of economic 
interests and therefore will make an end of the eco- 
nomic class struggle, and because of this a beginning 
of a universal brotherhood, a race no longer divided 
against itself. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Describe tlie economic classes. 

2. What relation has the fact of the collective struggle for exist- 
ence to the economic class struggle? 

3. Under what conditions have great conflicts taken place between 
exploiters ? 

4. Why are the ruling institutions, usages and morals of any 
country the institutions, usages and morals of tlie ruling class ? 

5. Trace the evolution of the class struggle. 

6. What are some of the points in controversy in the economic 
class struggle? 

7. What is class-consciousness? 

8. Are there degrees of consciousness? 

9. Why is the conflict irrepressible? 

10. What will end the class struggle? 

11. How is the economic class struggle related to the evolution 
of Socialism? 



PART IV 

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC QUESTIONS OF CON- 
TROVERSY BETWEEN CAPITALISTS 
AND SOCIALISTS 



CHAPTER XXni 

FOR WHAT PURPOSES MAY THE STATE EXIST 

367. The Struggle to Survive.— Collectivism is in- 
herent in nature. It is present in all the lower forms 
of life. It was and is an essential condition of the 
survival of the human race in its struggles for exist- 
ence. It is absurd to admit that any organism may ex- 
ist, and yet deny to it the right to do its utmost to pre- 
serve and to defend its own existence.^ 

368. Govenmient a Factor in the Struggle to Sur- 
vive.— If government is understood to he the function 
of society by which it seeks to defend itself and to pro- 
vide for its own welfare then to deny that the govern- 

1. "They [the anarchists] combat Marxian Socialism because it 
is law-abiding and parliamentary, and they contend that the most 
•fficacious and the surest mode of social transformation is rebellion. 

"These assertions, which respond to the vagueness of the sentiments 
and ideas of too large a portion of the working class and to the im- 
patience provoked by their wretched condition, may meet with a tem- 
porary, unintelligent approval; but their effect can only be ephemeral. 
The explosion of a bomb may indeed give birth to a momentary emotion, 
but it cannot advance by the hundredth part of an inch the evolution 
in men's minds towards Socialism, while it causes a reaction in feeling, 
a reaction in part sincere, but skillfully fomented and exploited as a 
pretext for repression." — Ferri: Socialism and Modern Science, pp. 
149-51. 

286 



Chap. XXIII PURPOSES OF THE STATE 287 

ment may exist at all is to deny to the social organism 
the right which must be conceded to all organisms, 
namely, the right to do its utmost to preserve and to 
defend its own existence. Whatever theories one may 
entertain as to the nature and origin of rights, the fact 
is that all forms of life do exert themselves to the utter- 
most in the effort to survive in the struggle for exist- 
ence. The collectivism of all sociable animals, includ- 
ing man, is only a means to this end in this struggle for 
existence. The establishment of regularly constituted 
authorities for the purpose of maintaining the peace 
within and for protecting the collectivity from enemies 
without is only one form of the collective struggle for 
existence.^ 

2. "The course of history is a struggle against nature, against 
need, ignorance and impotence, and, therefore, against bondage of every 
kind in which we were held under the law of nature at the beginning 
of history. The progressive overcoming of this impotence — this is the 
evolution of liberty, whereof history is an account. In this struggle 
we should never have made one step in advance, and we should never 
take a further step, if we had gone into the struggle singly, each for 
himself. 

"Now, the state is precisely this contemplated unity and co-opera- 
tion of individuals in a moral whole, whose function it is to carry on 
this struggle, a combination which multiplies a million-fold the force 
of all the individuals comprised in it, which heightens a million- fold 
the powers which each individual singly would be able to exert. 

"The end of the state, therefore, is not simply to secure to each 
individual that personal freedom and that property with which 
the bourgeois principle assumes that the individual enters the state 
organization at the outset, but which in point of fact are first afforded 
him in and by the state. On the contrary, the end of the state can be 
no other than to accomplish that which, in the nature of things, is and 
always has been the function of the state, in set terms: by combining 
individuals into a state organization to enable them to achieve such 
ends and to attain such a level of existence as they could not achieve 
as isolated individuals. 

"The ultimate and intrinsic end of the state, therefore, is to 
further the positive unfolding, the progressive development of human 
life. In other words, its function is to work out in actual achievement 
the true end of man; that is to say, the full degi'ee of culture of which 
human nature is capable. It is the education and evolution of mankind 
into freedom." — ^Lassalle: Science and the Workingman, pp. 35-36. 

"The state, being the institute of justice, and by its nature all- 
inclusive, represents the most perfect form of co-operation possible. 
The large undertakings now successfully carried out by private corpor- 
ations can be still more successfully carried out by the state; for the 
private corporation, being bent on profits, naturally takes the ground 



288 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

369. Self -Preservation.— The statement that ^'self- 
preservation is the first law of nature" is simply a 
declaration of this observed fact in nature, that no 
form of life considers any theory of rights when strug- 
gling for its own existence. This is as true of men as 
of beasts. It is as true of collections of men as of in- 
dividuals. The earliest gentes, phratries, the tribes, 
the nations made by federations of the tribes, were all 
of them the necessary result of this universal struggle 
for existence. 

370. The Social Struggle.— Society does and must 
exist.^ What may society do in that branch of its ac- 
tivities which has to do with its own defense and with 



that anything is good enough which the public will accept, and no 
price too high that the public will pay; while the state, being free from 
this necessity, * * * may take the ideal ground that nothing is 
good enough which is short of the very best. All of the tremendous 
arguments which may be urged for association as a general principle 
of conduct may be urged with heightened force in favor of that more 
complete and perfect form of association represented by the state. And 
to this broader and more helpful conception of the state we are steadily 
advancing. One by one the state has been taking over functions and 
duties once vehemently denied to it, but now amply justified as helping 
to free men from the tyranny of things. Light-houses have been built 
and manned, waterways improved, maps and charts prepared. Cities 
have been paved and lighted and drained; water has been regarded as 
a public necessity; water power and natural gas for manufacturing 
purposes have been made available; tram lines have been taken over 
or built; municipal tenements have been erected; free libraries and 
public baths and gymnasiums have been established. * * * Both 
telegraphs and railways have been taken over by the state. Boards 
of health have been established; quarantine has been inaugurated; cur- 
rency has been provided. Best of all, in any country marked by any 
degree of intelligence and prosperity, an elaborate system of public 
education has come to be regarded as a public necessity. School houses 
have been built by the thousands, colleges and universities by the 
hundred, investigations have been carried on, publications issued, expe- 
ditions fitted out. This list, long as it is, does not by any means 
exhaust the present directions of state activity. And, from none of these 
multitudinous functions would any but a very small body of reaction- 
aries have the state withdraw. There is no turning back in this work 
of increasing the freedom of the individual by diminishing the tyranny 
of things." — Henderson: Education and the Larger Life, p. 373. 

3. "The external ground for the existence of the state is the 
nature of man. There are no men without continuity of social life [Zu- 
sammemleben] . There is no continuity of social life without order. 
There is no order without law. There is no law without coercive force. 



Chap. XXIII PURPOSES OF THE STATE 289 

making provision for the common welfare? Manifest- 
ly, this is not a question of what society may be able to 
do, but what it may most wisely do in order to best 
secure these ends. Society is not only a collectivity, but 
is a collection of individuals, each individual being an 
organ of the social organism. Society cannot protect 
itself, nor provide for its welfare, except as it provides 
for the safety and comfort of the individuals who 
make up the collectivity of which society is composed. 
Government may not exist, then, for any purpose which 
is not for the safety and welfare of the individuals 
who make up society. 

371. The Abuse of Power.— To use the public au- 
thority to impoverish a portion of society in order to 
enrich another portion of society would be, manifestly, 
an abuse of power. 

To use the public authority to deprive any member 
of society of the opportunity to live a full, human life 
would be to use the public power to do the very wrong 
in order to prevent which the government exists, and 
hence would be an abuse of power. 

To use the public authority to do for an individual 
anything for his advantage, and yet a thing which he 
can do better, or, at least, as well, for himself, is an 
unnecessary burden on all for the benefit of a single 
individual, and hence would be an abuse of power. 

To use the public authority to compel any member of 
society to speak, or act, or dress, or live in any par- 
ticular manner, when no serious social harm may come 
from leaving him to his own choice in all such matters, 
is for the collectivity to invade the domain of the most 
sacred personal liberties of the individual. It would 



There is no coercive force without organization. And this organization 
is the state." — [System der Rechtsphilosophie, p. 296]. — Lasson quoted 
by Lily : First Principles in Politics, p. 28. 



290 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part TV 

be substituting persecution for protection, and would 
be a most serious abuse of power. 

For the public authority to require the individual to 
maintain any fixed standard of living or to regularly 
engage in any fixed calling or occupation, as to require 
one to be a blacksmith, another a farmer, and another 
a soldier contrary to the wishes of the person involved, 
would not be consistent with the true function of gov- 
ernment; that is, to secure the safety and welfare of 
society, the sole ground on which government has a 
right to exist and hence, would be an abuse of power. 

372. Class Rule and Self-Government.— ''Is not 
that government best which governs least T' If gov- 
ernment is a superior, enacting and enforcing laws for 
the control of inferiors, then that government is best 
which governs not at all. But if government is a nec- 
essary co-operative organization, composed of those 
who are political equals, then that government is best 
which best protects the individual and most perfectly 
provides for all matters of common interest. Certainly 
that government cannot be best which ignores the prin- 
cipal task of life, namely, making a living.^ 

373. Public Powers Controlled to Be Abused.— Gov- 
ernment ownership is a term used only with offense 
among most Socialists; but if the government is only 
that function of society, of the whole of society, which 
provides for itself in all collective affairs and protects 

4. The claim that the aggregate of governmental expenditures is 
largely determined by the industrial development finds support, also, 
in the general theory of social evolution. It is a fundamental law of 
social development that human wants are capable of indefinite expan- 
sion; but that their expansion will conform to the order of their relative 
importance. The conscious ability to satisfy a want which previously 
lay dormant gives to it a vitality that raises it from the rank of a 
simple desire to the rank of a vital principle capable of giving direction 
to social activity. As expressed by Bentham, 'Desires extend themselves 
with the means of satisfaction; the horizon is enlarged in proportion as 
one advances, and each new want equally accompanied by its pleasure 
Jtnd its pain becomes a new principle of action.' Now, it is evident that, 



Chap. XXIII PURPOSES OF THE STATE 291 

all its members from interference in all private affairs, 
then the government is the public; is society at work; 
is the collectivity, and there would be no difference 
between government ownership, public ownership and 
collective ownership, in such a case. 

But any government which is more or less than this 
whole body of society, this general public, this social 
collectivity, acting in its own behalf, must be a gov- 
ernment exercising public power not to protect all, 
nor to provide for the general welfare of all; but in- 
stead, to use the authority of all to specially serve a 
part and to protect this group of favorites from the just 
wrath of the rest of society. From government owner- 
ship by such a government little or no advantage can 
come to the workers. For government ownership by 
such a government it is as impossible to find any very 
effective words of defense as it is to find grounds for 
defending the existence of such a government. 

The fact that every government on earth is admin- 
istered for purposes which are here condemned does 
not make the condemnation any less deserved. It 

for the orderly development of society, new collective wants as well 
as new individual wants must emerge as development proceeds, from 
which it follows that industrial growth opens up to society ever- expand- 
ing possibilites, which, in part, will be reflected in a corresponding 
expansion of those functions which government alone can perform."— 
Adams: Finance, p. 38. 

"It is hard to believe in the wisdom of an economic regime under 
which scarcity and want are the result of an over-production of neces- 
sary commodities. It is hard to believe that human wealth is increased 
and the social purpose furthered by committing the natural resources 
of a country, the gold and silver, copper and iron, coal and oil, field and 
forest, into the private keeping of a few individuals, instead of adminis- 
tering this bounty for the good of all. * * * * 

"The carrying out of the social purpose requires that a man shall 
have adequate food and shelter and clothing, air and water, light and 
heat, education and amusement, beauty and social opportunity. And 
further, it requires that the necessary material part of his life shall be 
won at the least possible expenditure of labor and time.'* — ^Henderson: 
Education and the Larger Life, p. 78. 

"Employers will get labor cheap if they can; it is the business of 
the state to prevent them getting it so cheaply that they imperil the 
future of the race by the process." — Rogers : Work and Wages, p. 528. 



292 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Pabt W 

only emphasizes how serious is the demand for such 
a control of governmental powers as shall make these 
powers the servants of all, not the masters of any.^ 

374. The Government and Business Enterprises.— 
Is it consistent with the purposes for which the state 
exists for it to undertake any husiness or industrial 
enterprises ? If the state is a superior, guiding, con- 
trolling and robbing the masses then such a state 
would bring no advantage to the masses whom it now 
robs without government business enterprises by go- 
ing into business on its own account. It can make no 
difference to the workers whether they be robbed by 
a private shop, protected by the state, or by a shop 
owned as well as protected by the state. 

If the state is to conduct lines of business, is to hire 
its workers in the market, is to employ them at the 
rates for which the labor market can furnish them, and 
is to sell the products for a profit, like other producers, 
while the workers have no voice in the management 
of the industries in which they are employed, nor 
direct ownership in the products of their own labors, 
then the benefits which could come to the workers from 
such government enterprises are of so little importance 
as to be hardly worth the trouble of securing them. 
Government railways, gas works, water works, street 
railways, electric power plants, and the postoffice are 

5. "Since the time of Locke there has been practically no develop- 
ment of political thought. * * * There is really nothing on which the 
English race can base the claim they so often make, that they have 
a peculiar aptitude for the development of political institutions. They 
have been too conservative to develop institutional life beyond the needs 
of a primitive society. Peace and security come not from Anglo-Ameri- 
can institutions, but from the instincts inculcated during the supremacy 
of the Church, the favorable economic conditions, and that spirit of 
compromise which has been forced on the race by the presence of 
opposing types of men. Given these instincts and conditions, almost 
any institutions would be successful. Where these conditions are lack- 
ing, the failure of our institutions is lamentably apparent, and the 
inability to remedy them even more obvious." — Patten: Development 
<?»f English Thought, p. 188. 



Chap. XXIII PURPOSES OF THE STATE 293 

illustrations of this sort of government ownership. 
Such government ownership solves none of the politi- 
cal or economic problems connected with these great 
industries.^ 

Whether such a state should establish industries to 
compete with the private enterprises, which such a 
government is supposed to specially protect, is a ques- 
tion for the capitalists who are running the govern- 
ment to settle with the capitalists who are running the 
private enterprises. 

375. Industrial and Political Self-Government.-It 
will be impossible to enthrone the workers in shops of 
their own without at the same time making the work- 
ers the masters of the state. When the workers are 
made the masters of the shops and of the government 
which is to protect the shops, then the state will cease 
to be the representative of any portion of the people, 
existing to protect this portion while this portion pro- 
ceeds to exploit the rest of society. With the workers 
once made the masters of the state, then the state, that 
is, the function of society by which it protects itself 
and provides for its own common welfare, will at once 
be recovered from the control of the few who use its 
power to rob the many, and will become simply the or- 
ganic expression of all the people in the direct control 
of all matters of common concern. 

376. Socialism and the Government.— If the state 
is understood to be one part of society, using the 
strength of all to rob another part of society, then So- 
cialism will abolish the state. If the state is under- 
stood to be the whole people, using their own collective 
strength and collective wisdom in order to protect and 
to provide for themselves, then all that Socialism will 
abolish will be the abuses of the state.^ 

6. "The statesmanship of our rulers consists simply, not alone 
internally, but also externally, in placing every question upon the shelf 
and thereby increasing the number of unsolved problems." — ^Kautsky: 
Social Revolution, p. 95. 

7. "Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of 



294 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

377. Socialism Will Deliver the State from the 
Hands of Its Foes.— Today the workshop and the mar- 
ket-place are privately owned and privately used by 
a part of the people to exploit all the rest. Socialism 
will not destroy the shop or the market. It will deliver 
both into the ownership and control of all the people 
for the mutual and equal advantage of all. In the same 
way the state, that is, the government, is privately con- 
trolled and privately used by the private owners of the 
shops and markets, as a part of their business equip- 
ment in their work of exploiting all the rest of the 
people.^ Socialism will not destroy the state, the gov- 
ernment. It will simply deliver it from the private 
control of the private owners of the shops and markets ; 

property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against 
the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have 
none at all." — Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations, Book V., Chapter I. 

"Respect for the goods and property of others is the basis of human 
society. It is demanded by social duty, it is inspired by good manners, 
it is inculcated by divine rule, and should be rigidly enforced by civil 
law and authority. * * * It is the primary object of every well- 
founded government to encourage the acquisition of individual fortunes, 
as it is one of its most sacred duties to guard them for their possessors 
when they have been lawfully and honestly earned." — Dos Passos, Com- 
mercial Trusts, pp. 133-34. 

"The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into common- 
wealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation 
of their property." — Locke: Civil Government, p. 76, Cassell's National 
Library edition. 

"The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing 
the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." — ^Marx and Engels : Com- 
munist Manifesto, p. 15. 

8. "Such is the array of distinctively economic forces making for 
imperialism, a large, loose group of trades and professions seeking 
profitable business and lucrative employment from the expansion of 
military and civil services, from the expenditure on military operations, 
the opening up of new tracts of territory and trade with the same, and 
the provision of new capital which these operations require, all these 
finding their central guiding and directing force in the power of the 
general financier. 

"The play of these forces does not openly appear. They are essen- 
tially parasites upon patriotism, and they adapt themselves to its 
piotecting colors. In the mouths of their representatives are noble 
phrases, expressive of their desire to extend the area of civilization, 
to establish good government, promote Christianity, extirpate slavery 
and elevate the lower races. Some of the business men who hold such 
language may entertain a genuine, though usually a vague, desire to 
accomplish these ends; but they are primarily engaged in business, and 



Chap. XXIII PURPOSES OF THE STATE 295 

and the same political action which will make the 
workers the masters in the administration of the shops 
will make them the masters in the administration of 
the government itself. In fact, it is only by capturing 
and using the power of the state that the workers can 
be made the masters in the shops and the market- 
place. 

378. Do Socialists Propose the Abuse of Public 
Power?— May the state then properly undertake to use 
the political power for such a purpose, that is, for the 
purpose of extending collectivism, democracy and 
equality to the workshop and market-place! 

The power of the state has been used, ever since the 
close of barbarism, to extend and enforce monopoly, 
tyranny and inequality in the workshop and the mar- 
ket-place. It is absurd to contend that the public au- 
thority may be used to employ the power of all, at the 
expense of all, for the benefit of a part, but that 
the authority of all may not be used by all for the 
benefit of all. 

It is of little advantage in the struggle for existence 
to have a voice in the affairs of the state if it is to be 
agreed that the state is to have no relation to the strug- 
gle for existence. The Socialist asks not only for a 
voice for all, but he insists that this voice of all shall 
be heard in the management of all those interests which 
the members of society hold in common. 

379. Individuality Established and Defended Un- 
der Socialism.— Where will the individual appear when 
this revolution shall have changed the present political 

they are not unaware of the utility of the more unselfish forces in 
furthering their ends. Their true attitude of mind is expressed by Mr. 
Rhodes in his famous description of 'Her Majesty's flag' as 'the greatest 
commercial asset in the world.' " — Hobson : Imperialism, p. 68. 

"The state, as now constituted, may be said, in essence, to exist 
for the maintenance of the four grand monopolies of land and locomo- 
tion, money and machinery, and for little else." — ^Davidson: The An- 
nals of Toil, p. 477. 



296 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

state to the coming social state, when public author- 
ity shall have ceased to be the special privilege of the 
few and has become the acknowledged function of all. 
and all collective interests have become subject to col- 
lective control!^ 

The individual will have been delivered from the 
monopoly of capitalism, which denies him the right to 
earn a living except by the consent of some private 
owner of the means of production.^^ 

The individual will have been delivered from the 
tyranny of capitalism, which denies him the right to 
produce, except as the servant of another. 

The individual will have been delivered from the 
inequality of capitalism, which denies the right to 
most men to live at all, except as the personal inferiors, 
menials and dependents of others no better than them- 
selves. 

9. "We must remember that the well-being of mankind * * * 
consists of three main elements: (1) the subjugation of nature; 
(2) the perfection of social machinery, and, (3) personal development— 
and that true progress must include advancement in all." — ^Mackenzie: 
Introduction to Social Philosophy, p. 297. 

"It is seen to consist, not in letting man alone, for that freedom 
turns out to be an illusion, but in surrounding him with facilities and 
opportunities for the full play of his individuality, the effective working 
out of his life purposes." — Henderson; Education and the Larger Life, 
p. 376. 

10. "The case for society stands thus : The individual must be 
assured the best means, the best and fullest opportunities for complete 
self -development; in no other way can society itself gain variety and 
strength. But one of the most indispensable conditions of opportunity 
for self- development, government alone, society's controlling organ, can 
supply. All combination Avhich necessarily creates monopoly, which 
necessarily puts and keeps indispensable means of industrial and social 
development in the hands of a few, and those few not the few selected 
by society itself, but the few selected by arbitrary fortune, must be 
under either the direct or indirect control of society. To society alone 
can the power of dominating combination belong." — President Wilson: 
The State, p. 661. 

"The whole idea of the social state is to further the opportunity 
and freedom of the individual life, and so make possible the increase of 
human wealth. The social state is the instrument of individualism, not 
its opponent. The social state limits individualism in only one way — ■ 
it denies the right of the individual to exploit his neighbor, even as 
justice denies the vendetta in taking over punishment from the hands 
of private vengeance and making it a state function." — ^Henderson: Edu- 
cation and the Larger Life, p. 379, 



Chap. XXIII PURPOSES OF THE STATE 297 

The individual will be given his economic right to 
earn a living as a free, self-employing worker, to pos- 
sess for himself his products,^^ with equal voice in the 
control of the work he helps to do and with equal op- 
portunity to be a worker if he so chooses, with all the 
others. 

380. The End of the Oppressor. —Under such con- 
ditions the collective power of all, the public, the state, 
the government— call it what you will— this collective 
power of all cannot then be used to impoverish some 
in order to enrich others, to oppress some in order to 
gratify others, to humiliate some in order to exalt 
others.^2 

Democratic collectivism with all mankind in the col- 
lectivity will make an end of the abuse of public power. 
Socialism will substitute the collective use of public 
power for the equal good of all, for its private abuse 
for the private profit of a few. 

381. Summaxy.— 1. Government is simply the 
whole body of society protecting and providing for 
itself. 

2. The state exists because self-preservation is the 
first law of nature. 

3. The power of the state has been captured by a 
ruling class— the capitalist class— and is everywhere 
used as a part of the equipment by which the few are 
able to oppress the many. 

4. Socialism will deliver both the industries, which 
are collectively used and the power of the state, by 
which all collective interests should be protected from 

11. "Commencing at zero in savagery, the passion for the posses- 
sion of property, as the representative of accumulated subsistence, has 
now become dominant over the human mind in civilized races." — ^Mor- 
gan: Ancient Society, Preface, VII. 

12. "Rampant as the spirit of commercialism now is, I cannot 
but regard its manifestation as the last up-fiaming of the fire before it 
goes out." — Prof. Henderson (Chicago University): Education and 
the Larger Life, p. 380. 



298 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

the control of the few and into the possession of the 
many. 

5. Such a social state would necessarily :guard all 
private interests from public interference, and all pub- 
lic interests from private oppression. It would be 
the most perfect guaranty of free men and of free 
society. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Is the state necessary? 

2. By what right may it exist? 

3. What relation has the state to the universal struggle for 
existence ? 

4. Give instances of the abuse of public power. 

5. Is that government best which governs least? 

6. In what case may government ownership be different from 
public or collective ownership? In what case would these terms all 
mean the same? 

7. Can the workers be greatly benefited by government ownership 
when the government itself is not answerable to the workers? 

8. Why is industrial democracy necessary in order to have real 
political democracy? 

9. How can advantage be taken of political democracy in order 
to secure industrial democracy? 

10. May the people properly undertake to use the power of the 
state to extend democracy to the workshop and the market? 

11. What becomes of the individual under Socialism? 



CHAPTER XXIV 

ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 

382. The Economists.— Political economy regards 
mankind only as related to the production, distribution 
or consumption of wealth. Social economy regards 
wealth only as related to the comfort, liberty and 
progress of mankind. So far as the meaning of words 
goes, political economy is the science of wealth from 
the standpoint of capitalism, and social economy is the 
science of wealth from the standpoint of Socialism. 
Nevertheless, many who are called politcal economists 
constantly consider the public welfare. Some who call 
themselves social economists are among the most active 
defenders of capitalism. We shall avoid confusion if 
we ignore any distinctions between economists as to 
whether they call themselves political or social econ- 
omists. 

Even if these terms be used interchangeably, still 
there are many kinds of economists. The English, also 
called the Manchester and the classical school, is the 
oldest and has been the most influential. Adam Smith, 
Ricardo, Malthus and John Stuart Mill were of this 
school. The German, modem or historical school, is 



300 QUESTIONS OP CONTROVEUSY Part IV 

tlie otlier of the two most important of tlie groups of 
the political economists. 

383. The English School.— The English school ig- 
nores the real man who actually exists, and creates an 
imaginary man, who, it admits, never existed. It calls 
this creation of its imagination *Hhe economic man," 
and proceeds to ask what this imaginary man would do 
under all possible circumstances. They answer their 
own questions in a manner consistent with the char- 
acter of their imaginary man, and from these answers 
they construct their ** economic axioms," on which 
they build their science of economics.^ 

384. The Historical School.— The historical school 
does not try to imagine an *^ economic man" and base 
a science on the answers which their own straw man 
may make to their own questions. The English school 
is based on assumptions. The historical school is based 
on observations.^ The English school derives its as- 
sumptions from its * * economic man, ' ' who is simply an 
ordinary man stripped of all his qualities save those 
which are most in demand under capitalism. Its as- 
sumptions are the assumptions of capitalism. The 

1. "Of every human passion or motive, political economy makes 
entire abstraction. Love of country, love of honor, love of friends, 
love of learning, love of art, pity, honor, shame, religion, charity, will 
never, so far as political economy cares to take account, withstand in 
the slightest degree or for the shortest time the efforts of the economic 
man to amass wealth." — Walker: Political Economy, p. 16. 

"Ricardo's economic assumptions were of his own making." — Toyn- 
bee: The Industrial Revolution, p. 11. 

"Attempts have indeed been made to construct an abstract science 
with regard to the actions of an 'economic man,' who is under no ethical 
influences and who pursues pecuniary gain warily and energetically, but 
mechanically and selfishly. But they have not been successful, nor even 
thoroughly carried out, for they have never really treated the economic 
man as perfectly selfish. No one could be relied on better than the 
economic man to endure toil and sacrifice with the unselfish desire 
to make provision for his family; and his normal motives have always 
been tacitly assumed to include the family affections. But if these 
motives are included, why not also all other altruistic motives, the ac- 
tion of which is so far uniform in any class at any time and place that 
it can be reduced to general rule?" — Marshall: Principles of Eco- 
nomics, Vol. I., Preface, p. 8. 

2. Ely: Political Economy, p. 16. 



Chap. XXIV ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 301 

historical school draws its conclusions from observa- 
tions. It observes how real men act and the results 
of their actions in real industry and commerce, but in 
industry and commerce as carried on under capitalism. 

385. **The Dismal Science."— Now, as a matter of 
fact, if the real man is not so bad a character as the 
economic man would be if he could really become a 
living man, it is found, nevertheless, that under the 
stress of capitalism he acts badly enough, so that the 
English school, based on the assumptions which under- 
lie capitalism, and the historical school, based on the 
observation of man's conduct under capitalism, come 
practically to the same general results. Carlyle 's char- 
acterization of economics as a ^^ dismal science'' will 
apply with equal force to both schools.^ 

The English school argues from the character of a 

3. "The trade unionists speak with considerable bitterness of 
political economists, and with some reason. The ordinary teaching of 
political economy admits as its first definition that wealth is the pro- 
duct of labor; but it seldom tries to point out how the producer should 
obtain the benefit of his own product. It treats of the manner in which 
wealth is produced, and postpones or neglects the consideration of the 
process by which it is distributed, being, it seems, attracted mainly by 
the agencies under which it is accumulated. Writers have been habitu- 
ated to estimate wealth as a general does military force, and are more 
concerned with its concentration than they are with the details of its 
partition. It is not surprising that this should be the case. Most 
writers on political economy have been persons in opulent, or at least 
in easy, circumstances. They have witnessed with profound or inte- 
rested satisfaction the growth of wealth in the classes to which they 
belong, or with which they have been familiar or intimate. In their 
eyes the poverty of industry has been a puzzle, a nuisance, a problem, 
a social crime. They have every sympathy with the man who wins 
and saves, no matter how; but they are not very considerate for a 
man who works. * * * In point of fact, ordinary political economy 
does not go further than to describe the process and some of the con- 
sequences of a state of war. The war is industrial, in which each 
man is striving to get the better of his neighbor, to beat him in the 
struggle for existence. Malthus and the elder Mill laid the Darwinian 
hypothesis before the modern prophet of the physical life of the future 
and the past began to speculate on natural forces.'* — Rogers: Work 
and Wages, pp. 523 * * 25. 

"Take economics as an example. During the eighteenth century 
Adam Smith, having carefully observed the conditions which prevailed 
in Europe, and especially in Great Britain, wrote a book admirably 
suited to his environment, and the book met with success. Then men 



302 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

man who would do nothing but struggle for more 
wealth, and the historical school argues from the con- 
duct of a man so placed that he could do nothing but 
struggle for existence. The one has an abnormal man 
and the other abnormal conditions, and both arrive at 
abnormal results.^ 

386. The Field of Study— But, it is said, human 
character is of a low order, and all the world is under 
the reign of capitalism. If it be granted that both the 
imaginary economic man and the conditions under 
which real men act are abnormal, whence then the ma- 
terials for either social or political science, if these 
cannot be trusted? 

In the first place, it may be said that we may study 
real men and not imaginary ones, and if we do, the 
discovery of the endless changes of social and political 
forms wrought out with the world's advance will at 
once lead us beyond this modern, transitory, constantly 
shifting life under capitalism to the previous, and, 
from the standpoint of a student looking for social 
causes, to a more important period of man's existence. 
If we do this there will be revealed to us the steps by 
which this capitalism came into existence, as well as 
the elements within itself which will in the end make 
its further existence impossible. We shall learn that 

undertook to erect the principles of that book into a universal law, 
irrespective of environment. Then others theorized on these commen- 
tators and their successors upon them until the most practical of 
business problems has been lost in a metaphysical fog. 

"Now men are apt to lecture upon political economy as if it were 
a dogma, much as the nominalists and realists lectured in mediaeval 
schools. But a priori theories can avail little in matters which are 
determined by experiment." Adams: The New Empire, Introduction, 
pp. XXX., xxxi. 

4. "A few years ago the proposition was made to remove 
economics from its place in the course of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science on the ground that economic science had never 
shown itself worthy of the name. * * * If we take from political 
economy first all the truisms and then all the doubtful points our 
remainder will be a quantity closely approximating zero.'* — ^Lunt: Eco- 
nomic Science, pp. 3 * * 5. 



Chap. XXIV ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 303 

it is true that the materials for a satisfactory social 
philosophy of any sort cannot be gathered until itien 
shall first have healthful lives in the midst of healthful 
surroundings; that our human nature will never be 
able to reveal unto itself the real nature of its own life 
until the struggle for existence shall cease to be de- 
structive of individual and social health. 

387. May Learn the Next Step.— But while no com- 
plete philosophy of the whole of life is possible until 
the whole of life may be revealed to us, enough is 
known, and not seriously disputed by reputable schol- 
arship, of our past and of the evolutionary advance of 
the race to enable the social economist to name the next 
step to be taken, and to enter into the struggle, by edu- 
cational and political action, to effectively assist so- 
ciety in taking that next step.^ What the second step 
will be no one can tell, except by further observation, 
after the next step has been taken. 

388. These limitations which the nature of the case 
has thrown around the student of social economy 
should be borne in mind while we inquire into some of 
the disputes between capitalists and Socialists as re- 
lated to some of the more fundamental assumptions of 
economic science. 

389. Is Capitalism Natural?—!. The capitalists 
assume that the wage system is the natural method of 
production. 

If they meant by this that it was the natural result 
of the development of the race at a certain stage of its 
growth, in the same way that the ancient tribal com- 
munism, slavery and serfdom may all of them be said 

5. "But the Socialists were men who had felt intensely and knew 
something about the hidden springs of human action of which the 
economists took no account. » * * The influence which they are 
now exercising on the younger economists in England and Germany 
is important, and I think for the greater' part wholesome, even though 
the association with fervid philanthropy does perhaps cause some 
tendency to rapid and unscientific thinking." — ^Marshall: Present Posi- 
tion of Economics, p. 18. 



304 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

to have been natural, there would be no dispute. But 
that is not their contention. They mean rather that it 
is the method of production originally practiced among 
men; that it has come into existence in the natural 
order of events and without violence, and that it is so 
inherent in the necessary relations of life that no ra- 
tional order of society is possible without capitalism. 
Historically this is not true. In theory there is no dis- 
pute that that system of production is most natural, 
at any given time, which best adjusts itself to the eco- 
nomic forces and conditions of that time. Whether 
capitalism or Socialism best fits the new economic con- 
ditions so rapidly developing in all of the earth, is the 
question at issue. To assume that either is natural 
and the other is not, is to assume the very point in 
controversy. With this understanding of the word 
natural, even if the assumption were true at any par- 
ticular stage in the world's growth, it would prove 
nothing. For as conditions change, the natural result 
would be the change of systems of organization to fit 
the changed conditions, so that what was natural at 
one time might be entirely unnatural at another time. 

390. Capitalism of Recent Origin.— 2. The capi- 
talists assume that the wage system always has been 
and always will be the method of production. 

It is not meant that they deny the historic facts re- 
garding the existence of serfdom, slavery and the com- 
mon ownership and co-operative industry of the primi- 
tive peoples. They simply ignore them and write as 
if the whole of human history had no lessons for them 
until capitalism had come. Whenever they write about 
the past or predict the future, it is always, in effect, 
as if with the assumption that the wage system always 
was and always will be in existence. As a matter of 
fact, as has been seen in our study of the evolution 
of capitalism, it is of very recent origki. 



Chap. XXIV ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 305 

391. The Origin of Capital.— 3. The capitalists as- 
sume that the beginning of capitalism, i. e., of the 
private ownership of land and machinery and the re- 
sulting dependence of the many on the consent of the 
few for an opportmiity to live at all, was made as the 
result of saving, thrift and enterprise. 

There is no place where the economists do greater 
violence to the truth than in this assumption. When 
confronted with the facts of history they admit that 
the facts are against them, but they obstinately con- 
tinue to teach as scientifically true that which is 
known and admitted to be historically false. Take 
for example the following from Francis A. Walker, 
whose ^^ Political Economy'' is the text-book in a larg- 
er number of schools and colleges in America than any 
other publication. He oays :® 

392. Walker's Account.— *^ The origin of capital is 
so familiar that it need not be dwelt upon at length 
here. A very simple illustration may suffice. Let us 
take the case of a tribe dwelling along the shore and 
subsisting upon the fish caught from the rocks which 
jut into the sea. When the fish are plentiful the people 
live freely, even gluttonously. When their luck is bad 
they submit to privations which involve suffering, 
reaching sometimes to the pitch of famine. Now let us 
suppose that one of these fishermen, moved by a 
strong desire to better his condition, undertakes to lay 
by a store of fish. He denies himself and accumulates 
in his hut a considerable quantity of dried food. This 
is wealth. Whether it is to become capital or not de- 
pends upon the use which is to be made of it. If des- 
tined to be merely a reserve against hard times, it re- 
mains wealth ; but does not become capital. 

^^But our fisherman, in laying by his store of fish, 

6. Walker: Political Economy; pp. 62-64. 



306 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Pabt IV 

has higher designs than to equalize the food consump- 
tion of the year. As the dull season approaches, he 
takes all the food he can carry and goes to the hills, 
where he finds trees whose bark can be easily detached 
by sharp stones. Again and again he returns to his 
work in the hills, while his neighbors are painfully 
striving to keep themselves alive. At the end of the 
dull season he brings down to the water a canoe, so 
light that it can be borne upon his shoulders, so buoy- 
ant that he can paddle it out to the ^ banks,' which lie 
two or three miles from the shore, where in one day he 
can get as many fish as he could catch off the rocks 
in a week. 

^^The canoe is capital; the fisherman is a capitalist. 
He can now take his choice of three things. He may 
go out in his canoe and bring home supplies of fish, 
which will allow him to marry and rear a family in 
comfort, and with his surplus hire some of his neigh- 
bors to build him a hut, their women to weave him 
blankets, and their children to bring water from the 
spring and wait upon his family; or, secondly, he may 
let out his canoe to some one, who will be glad to get 
the use of it on payment of all the fish one family could 
fairly consume, and himself stay at home in complete 
idleness, basking in the sun or on stormy day^ seeking 
refuge in his comfortable hut; or, which is more likely, 
he may, thirdly, let out the canoe and himself turn to 
advantage the knowledge and experience acquired by 
making canoes. Again and again he will appear upon 
the shore, bringing a new canoe, for the use of which a 
score of his neighbors will clamorously compete." 

393. Theories Facing Facts.— To all this it must be 
said that this illustration shows the origin of capital, 
except in the following particulars: (1) There never 
was such a savage. The first canoe was the result of 
centuries of paddling about in the water. No one man 



Chap. XXIV ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 307 

made it nor possessed it when it was made. (2) If 
there had been such a savage, he would not have fished 
for himself only, but for the tribe as well as for himself, 
and he would have been as ignorant of the * ^banks'' 
three miles from the shore as he was of the building of 
canoes. The *^ banks" were found and used in com- 
mon, and to this day the *^ fishing banks" are common 
property and are used co-operatively. (3) Bees, squir- 
rels, ground hogs, and savages never lived after the 
manner outlined. It was reserved for capitalism to 
put its workers in a position to live gluttonously a part 
of the time (if at all) and to starve the rest of the 
time. The savages who were so advanced that they 
caught fish and used canoes, caught them for the tribal 
store house, and carried large stores in advance of the 
demand. (4) If such a savage had made such a boat, 
he would have been employed at once making boats 
and showing others how to make boats for the whole 
tribe. (5) If he had chosen to hold a boat for his own 
pleasure, he would have been permitted to do so, but 
with two boats he would have been obliged to select 
one for himself and the other would have become tribal 
property if needed for the common good. (6) He 
could not have hired other savages to fish for him or 
build a hut for him, neither could he have hired the 
wives or children of his neighbors to become his fam- 
ily's servants. The savages of that stage of develop- 
ment served each other as equals, not as menials. That 
was reserved for civilization to introduce. When sav- 
ages lived on fish, each savage was alike responsible 
for all the duties of the husband and father for all of 
the women and children of the group. (7) He could 
not have rented his boat for a part of the catch. Such 
a proposal such savages would not have understood. 
Rent is a part of capitalism. (8) He could not have 
led an idlie life while others provided fish for him. 



308 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Paet IV 

He would have helped to get the fish or he would not 
have eaten. A leisure class which others feed is a 
part of capitalism. (9) He could not have made boats 
for sale. There was no private market for private 
profits."^ (10) It is seen that in every particular this 
illustration, by which we are to learn the origin of cap- 
ital, is contrary to the facts.^ It assumes capitalism to 
be already in existence and proceeds to show how cap- 
italism might be born by having capitalism serve as 
midwife on the occasion of its own birth. Thus, in the 
name of science, is a false position defended by an ar- 
ray of assumptions utterly at variance with the facts. 

394. .John Stuart Mill and the Duke of Argyll.— 
John Stuart Mill, when facing the same question, ad- 
mits that his theory does not at all agree with the facts 
of history. He says: *^In considering the institution 
of property as a question of social philosophy, we must 
leave out of consideration its actual origin in any of 
the existing nations of Europe. ' '^ He then proceeds to 
discuss the question by ^ ^ supposing, ' ' not a savage, but 
an impossible ^* community, unhampered by any pre- 
vious possessions.'' He admits that no such commun- 
ity ever existed in Europe. The fact is that it never 
existed anywhere else. The further fact is that in the 
study of social institutions by evolutionary methods, 
the most important item of all is the *^ previous pos- 
session,'' the very thing which Mr. Mill ignores in his 
discussion of the origin of capitalism. The Duke of 
Argyll is more frank and truthful. In discussing this 



7. You will find all these points confirmed in Morgan's Ancient 
Society, or by any other standard authority on the life of savages of 
the stage of development which Mr. Walker assumes. 

8. "Two things have discredited political economy — the one is 
its traditional disregard for facts; the other, its strangling itself with 
iefinitions." — Rogers: The Economic Interpretation of History, Pref- 
ace, p. viii. 

0. 'Mxil'- Political Economy, p. 260; also see the whole of Chapter 
V. of Book I., Vol. I. 



Cha?. XXIV ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 309 

same question, he says: ^^It is the field of war, the 
field on which possession— the right of exclusive use 
over some particular portion of the earth— has been 
won, or on which it has been successsfully defended. 
We may like or dislike the steady contemplation of 
this truth, but it is a fact, nevertheless, whatever we 
may think of it. ' '^'^ 

395. War the Origin of Capital.— It is admitted 
that, with capitalism once in existence, certain indi- 
viduals may be able to so manage as to comer the fish 
market and so be able to compel the wives and children 
of their neighbors to become their servants, but capi- 
talism itself, the private ownership of the means of 
producing the means of life, must first be established. 
Not until the private ownership of the canoe was made 
of more importance than the life, liberty and equality 
of opportunity for men, women and children could such 
a capitalist be produced. It was necessary for the 
capitalistic class to appear, on the one hand, and for 
the serving class to appear on the other, before ^'sav- 
ing, thrift and enterprise'' could effect the rising of 
an individual from one class to the other, and this forc- 
ing of the class lines which separated the people into 
the two conditions of mastery and servitude, as Mr. 
Mill admits, as the Duke of Argyll directly states, and 
as was clearly proven in our study of the origin and 
development of capitalism in the second part of this 
volume, was the work of war. War has taken the earth 
away from the people. Socialism will restore it to 
them. 

396. The Right to Buy and Sell.— 4. The capital- 
ist assumes that there can be no right to property of 
any sort which one may not buy and another sell.^^ 

10. Duke of Argyll: Unseen Foundations of Society, p. 113. 

11. Not only the right to buy or to sell all kinds of property is 
assumed, but even the right of society to restore to public ownership 



310 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

The answer is that the right to the means of produc- 
ing the means of life is of the same nature as the right 
to life itself. The capitalist contends for the right to 
buy and sell productive property. The Socialist con- 
tends for the right to use productive property. The 
capitalist contends for the sacredness of trade, a^^vd he 
will admit no rights which will in any way imperil the 
continued possession of productive property in the 
hands of those who have it. The Socialist contends for 
the sacredness of life, and will admit no rights which 
will imperil either the fullest life or the completest 
liberty to those who need to use the means of producing 
the means of life. 

397. Labor a Commodity.— 5. The capitalist as- 
sumes that labor is a commodity, and as such may just- 
ly be bought and sold in the labor market.^^ The 
answer is that it is impossible to buy or sell labor apart 
from living laborers, that one cannot buy or sell labor 
without at the same time buying and selling laborers, 
and that the sale of a single laborer for a single horn- 
is a crime against the whole race of man. 

398. Self-interest.— 6. The capitalist assumes that 
the sole and only motive in industry is individual self- 
interest.^^ 

The answer is that while this is not entirely the 
truth, the very great force of self-interest is not dis- 
puted. It is even insisted that economic conditions 
have always determined all other social forms and that 
the whole life of man now waits for social and po- 
litical adjustment to new economic conditions. More 
than this: It is insisted that, while associated effort 
on the part of all can best provide for the needs of 
each, the self-interest of the individual, when each is 

property not gotten by purchase from the public, but by force and 
fraud, is also denied. See Walker: Political Economy, pp. 385-398 

12. Walker: Political Economy, pp. 259-287. 

13. Walker: Political Economy, p. 96. 



Chap. XXIV ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 311 

acting alone and for himself, results in the destruction 
of public spirit. The ^^good business man'' is likely 
either to be neglectful of his public duties or to at- 
tempt to take advantage of the public needs for the 
sake of his private profit. It would not be so under 
Socialism. When no one can serve himself except at 
the same time he serves society, nor serve society ex- 
cept he serves himself, then private interest and public 
spirit will join hands as mutually helpful economic 
forces. The more recent defenders of capitalism, 
speaking in the name of the science of economics, are 
siding with the Socialists in their contention that in- 
dividual competition, the result of individual self-inter- 
est, cannot even exist as an active factor in the face 
of great combinations.^^ Prof. Hadley says in the 
preface of his ^ ^ Economics '' : ^^The size of the units 
of capital is so large that free competition often be- 
comes impossible, and theories of economics which 
are based upon the existence of such competition prove 
blind guides in dealing with modern price move- 
ments. ' ' 

399. Economic Justice.— 7. The capitalist assumes 
that under competition all men and women will be 
able to secure what is just, and so provide for the high- 
est welfare for each to which he can be justly entitled.^^ 

14. "You cannot escape, try whatever you can, from the influence 
of competition, any more than from the survival of the fittest. 
But the survival of the fittest may be the survival of the analogue 
to Frankenstein's demon, while the effort of all true civilization is to 
improve those who are improvable, and to deal with the residuum. It is 
possible that the struggle for existence, unless controlled and ele- 
vated, may be the degradation of all. It nearly came to be so during 
the first thirty years of the present century." — Rogers: Work and 
Wages, p. 557. 

15. Mill: Political Economy, Vol. II., pp. 378-381. 

"But when we say that the pecuniary inequality of mankind is due 
to a corresponding inequality of brain-power, even if we limit this 
brain-power to the 'money- making* quality alone, we have gone a 
great way too far. We have left out one of the most important ele- 
ments in the problem. We have only stated the subjective side of 
the question, and have neglected the objective side. We shall never 



312 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

The answer is that if the parties to the competition 
were exact equals in strength, skill and good fortune, 
they might be able to exactly neutralize each other ^s 
efforts to serve society while striving with each other, 
but so long as any share of their strength is expended 
contending with each other, the largest production can- 
not be realized. It was the inequality of strength, skill 
and good fortune in war which made the coming of 
capitalism possible in the first place. Competition be- 
tween the weak and the strong does not mean the wel- 
fare of both; it means the sweat-shop for the helpless 
and leisure and luxury for the strong.^^ Socialism de- 
mands that the strength of society be used to per- 
petually maintain equal opportunities for those un- 
equally endowed, in order that all may live. Capital- 
ism demands unequal opportunities for those unequal- 
ly endowed, and the inequality of opportunity which it 
enforces is against those who are weak and in behalf of 
those who are strong. Capitalism cannot give to each 
the highest welfare to which he can be entitled. It pro- 
vides for the few, great and unearned benefits; and for 

be wholly right until we remember that this inequality of possession is 
due to a corresponding inequality of circumstances. The inequality of 
brain-power is only the subjective part of these circumstances. We 
must also consider the objective part, the external circumstances which 
surround each individual, whether belonging to the fortunate or the 
unfortunate class. Men come into the world and find themselves 
loaded with wealth or destitute of all proprietary interests. They are 
born millionaires or beggars. They open their eyes upon boundless 
plenty or upon abject poverty. They merit neither praise nor blame 
for the conditions under which they exist. However commendable 
intellectual qualities may be considered, they have nothing to do 
with those external circumstances over which we have no control." — 
Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., pp. 522-23. 

16. "It is in the highest degree desirable that competition should 
be severe, searching, unremitting. * * * But if competition is to 
be the law of trade, if self-interest is to be its predominant force, 
the members of the employing class must not only press hard upon 
each other — the harder the better— but they must bear heavily on 
the laboring class; and the more heavily the better, so long as the 
latter can withstand and return the pressure. ***** 

"This, I repeat, is the ideal industrial condition: that the body of 
laborers shall be able to offer an adequate economic resistance to 
continuous pressure from the employing class, so that no favors need 



Chap. XXIV ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS 313 

the many, great poverty as pitiless as it is unde- 
served.^''' 

400. ^'Letting Things Alone.''— 8. The capitalist 
assumes that the only duty of society toward industry 
and commerce is to let it alone.^^ 

The answer is that all factory laws, all courts for 
the collection of debts, the enforcing of contracts and 
the punishment of crimes against property are a re- 
fusal of society to let industry and commerce alone. 
In fact, the very organization of society itself is a re- 
fusal to let alone the things which concern the whole 
body of the people. Society does interfere. It ought 
not to do so in behalf of those who by force have mo- 
nopolized the resources and forces of nature and plead 
a let-alone policy for those who have been dispossessed. 
If it is to interfere at all, it should do so in behalf of 
all. But then, that is Socialism. 

be asked, on the one side, so that there need be no flinching on the 
other, in the exaction of all which the most vigorous prosecution of 
self-interest may require." — Walker: Discussions in Economics and 
Statistics, pp. 307-9; see also "What Shall We Tell the Working 
Classes," Scribner's Magazine, Vol. II., pp. 619-27. 

17. "Even the economists are beginning to see that 'free competi- 
tion' in business is a myth unless it be protected from the universal 
tendency of all competition in nature speedily and surely to end in 
monopoly." — ^Ward: Pure Sociology, p. 568. 

"When the principle of competition is set aside capitalist political 
economy goes with it. This principle is fundamental in the science, 
and in the facts of which it treats, unless violence interv^enes." — 
Bascom: Sociology, p. 60. 

18. "The conflict between capital and labor is very much of a 
delusion." — Laughlin: Political Economy, p. 347. 

Mill: Political Economy, Vol. II., p. 569. 

"Had economists worked out the most important part of their 
science, that which deals with the distribution of wealth, instead of 
merely busying themselves with hypothetical theories about rent, 
profits and population, they would have inculcated every one of 
those legislative acts which have seemed to control the production 
and distribution of wealth, but in reality have assisted the former, 
and have made the latter more natural, and therefore more equitable. 
I think that my contention, which I see quoted by Mr. Goschen, could 
be exhaustively proved, that every act of the legislature which seems 
to interfere with the doctrine of laissez faire, and has stood the test 
of experience, has been endorsed because it has added to the general 
efficiency of labor and therefore to the general well being of society." — 
JRogers: Work and Wages, pp. 527-28. 

Ely: Political Economy, p. 221. 



314 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

This let-alone contention is nothing less than the 
assumption that might is right, but with the limita- 
tion that the collective might of all must not be used to 
protect the common interest of all against the individ- 
ual might of the strong in their contest against the 
weak. **Let things alone" means, don't interfere to 
stop the athletic thief from robbing a crippled beggar. 

The might of greater strength, greater cunning or 
the accumulating power of greater or better organized 
industrial equipment in private hands may as ruth- 
lessly rob as an outright highwayman, and society 
could justify its protection of the highwayman as eas- 
ily as it could justify its protection of the greater 
strength, cunning or economic equipment of the pri- 
vate masters of the shop or market, in their economic 
war against those with inferior equipment, or entirely 
without the means of producing the means of life.^^ 

401. The Iron Law of Wages.— 9. The capitalist 
assumes that there is no possible provision for work- 
ing men beyond the smallest wages for which the work- 
ers will consent to work in numbers large enough to do 
the work required. 

The answer is that this is true under capitalism, but 
under Socialism there will be no such iron law of 
wages. 

Under capitalism the private owners will always be 
striving to make the share of the products which falls 
to the workers the smallest possible. The competition 

19. "Seventy-five years ago scarcely a single law existed in any 
country of Europe for regulating the contract for services in the interest 
of the laboring classes. At the same time the contract for commodities 
was everywhere subject to minute and incessant regulation. * * * * 
Can there be any wonder that statesmen and the mass of the people 
entertain slight regard for political economy, whose professors refuse 
even to entertain consideration of the difference between services and 
commodities in exchange, and whose representatives in legislation have 
opposed almost every limitation upon the contract for labor as un- 
necessary and mischievous?" — F. A. Walker, Quoted by Wright 
in Some Ethical Phases of the Labor Problem, pp. 65-66. 



Ghap.'XXIV assumptions in economics 315 

for employment among the workers in the face of this 
effort to reduce wages on the part of employers estab- 
lishes this tendency of wages always to reach the low- 
est level possible and still provide for the existence of 
the workers. This is the gist of the iron law of wages. 
It is obvious that it will remain a factor in the distribu- 
tion of the products of labor only so long as the private 
owners of the means of production can continue to 
force the workers to compete with each other for the 
opportunity to live at all. 

Under Socialism the total of the largest product 
which the workers are willing to produce will be the 
smallest reward for the workers themselves, for under 
Socialism those who are workers will no longer be 
compelled ^ ' to divide up ^ ' with those who are idlers in 
order to obtain their consent to become workers at all. 

402. Summary.— 1. All schools of economists, 
whether assuming the existence of an ^^ economic man" 
or undertaking to observe the conduct of the ordinary 
man under capitalism, come to the same ^'dismal" con- 
clusions as to the lot of man under capitalism. 

2. Present institutions can be understood only by 
studying their origin and the processes of their devel- 
opment. 

3. The capitalists assume all the leading features of 
capitalism as belonging to the normal and lasting lot 
of man: 

(a) They assume that the wage system is the nat- 
ural method of production. In the same sense, so was 
slavery natural. 

(b) They assume capitalism always to have ex- 
isted. It is of recent origin. 

(c) They assume that capital originated in saving, 
thrift and enterprise. It owes its origin to war. 

(d) They assume that labor may be properly bought 



316 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

and sold. But labor cannot be sold except the laborer 
be sold witb his labor. 

(e) They assume that the sole and only motive in 
economics is individual self-interest. The collective 
self and the collective self-interest must also be con- 
sidered. 

(f) They assume the existence and the justness of 
competition. Fr6e competition does not exist. By its 
own activities it has destroyed itsel f . 

(g) They assume the wisdom of the ^'let-alone 
policy." But they let nothing alone involving their 
own interests. Society ought to act in behalf of all in 
all matters where the interests of all are involved. 

(h) They assume the necessary existence of tne 
'4ron law of wages.'' This law holds only under cap- 
italism. There will be no such law under Socialism. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. State difference between English and historical schools of 
economists. 

2. Why are the conclusions of both schools so nearly to the same 
effect? 

3. From what sources can the materials be obtained for study 
in economics? 

4. What are some of the necessary limitations? 

5. Is the wage system natural? 

6. How old is capitalism? 

7. What is the origin of capital? 

8. Discuss positions of Walker, Mill and the Duke of Argyll, 

9. On what is human progress now waiting? 

10. Can economic justice exist under capitalism? 

11. Shall society "let things alone ?" Why? 

12. Will the "iron law of wages" prevail under Socialism? Why? 



CIIAPTEE XXV 

THEORIES OF VALUE 

403. The Exchange of Products.— The workers of 
the world are now producing goods to be sold in the 
world's market. Goods produced for the market are 
called commodities. In the sale and purchase of goods 
the fixing of a price at which the purchase or sale is 
made is necessary. 

The purpose of all production and sale of goods is 
in order to be able to purchase other goods. All pur- 
chase and sale of goods is of the nature of exchanging 
products which one has produced in excess of what 
he wishes to use, for the products of others which he 
also wishes to use. All purchases and sales which 
would seem to be exceptions are merely steps in the 
process by which the producer and consumer ^^get to- 
gether, ' ' and are therefore parts of this process of ex- 
change. 

404. Power in Exchange.— What determines the 
power of any given article to exchange itself for other 
articles in the market?^ How many caps, shawls, coats 

1. "It is not money that renders commodities commensurable. 
Just the contrary. It is because all commodities, as values, are real- 
ized human labor, and therefore commensurable, that their values can 

317 



318 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

of a certain kind can be obtained for a wagon load of 
wheat of a certain grade? This question is determined 
by learning the value of the wheat, and the value of 
the caps, shawls and coats to be exchanged. It is said 
that many things have value which cannot be ex- 
changed in the market for anything at all. The air is 
the usual illustration of this sort of value. This is 
called *^use value'' and is not a matter of importance 
in this discussion. 

Value, then, is the power which an article has to ex- 
change itself in the market for other articles. It is 
quite likely that no other subject has been more hotly 
disputed by the economists than this subject of value; 
the question of controversy being, **What creates 
value?" 

405. The Economists and Socialism.— Beginning 
with John Locke in the last decade of the seventeenth 
century,^ Sir William Petty, Adam Smith, Benjamin 
Franklin, Eicardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, 
Henry George, and all the English economists prior to 
the work of Prof. Jevons, maintained in substantial 

be measured by one and the same special commodity, and the latter 
be converted into the common measure of their values, i. e., into money/' 
—Marx: Capital, p. 66. 

2. "And thus, without supposing any private dominion and prop- 
erty in Adam over the world, exclusive of all other men, which can no 
way be proved, nor any one's property be made out from it, but suppos- 
ing the world, given as it was to the children of men in common, we see 
how labor could make men distinct titles to several parcels of it for their 
private uses, wherein there could be no doubt of right, no room tor 
quarrel. 

"Nor is it so strange as perhaps, before consideration, it may 
appear, that the property of labor should be able to overbalance the 
community of land, for it is labor, indeed, that puts the difference of 
value in anything; and let any one consider what the difference is be- 
tween an acre of land planted with barley or sugar, sown with wheat or 
barley, and an acre lying in common without any husbandry upon it, ' 
and he will find that the improvement of labor makes the far greater 
part of the value. I think it will be but a very modest computation to 
say, that of the products of the earth useful to the life of man, nine- 
tenths are the effects of labor. Nay, if we will rightly estimate things 
as they come to our use, and cast up the several expenses about them — 
what in them is purely owing to nature and w)iat to labor — we shall 



Chap. XXV THEORIES OF VALUE 319 

agreement that labor creates value. But, as Kirkup 
remarks, ^ ^ The economists, however, did not follow the 
principle to its obvious conclusions, that if labor is the 
source of wealth the laborer should enjoy it all. It was 
otherwise with the Socialists, who were not slow to 
perceive the bearing of the theory on the existing eco- 
nomic order. "^ 

406. All Theories Lead to Socialism.— It is not the 
purpose of this chapter to enter into the controversy 
as to which of the many theories of value is most scien- 
tific, but to state all the more widely known theories 
of value and to point out that all alike reveal the in- 
justice of the ^^ existing economic order," and that it 
is necessary to reorganize production and exchange if 
current social production is to provide for the current 
social welfare. 

407. Theories of Value.— Prof. Gide names four the- 
ories of value.^ They are substantially: 

1. Utility is the cause of value. 

2. Scarcity is the cause of value. 

find that in most of them ninety-nine hundredths are wholly to be put 
on the account of labor." — Locke: Civil Government (John Morley 
Library Edition), p. 211, et seq. 

" * * * And so far as we are aware, it is the first assertion 
that Value is due to human Labor." — Macleod: History of Economics, 
p. 636, thus speaks of this passage from Locke. 

"The theory which bases the right of property upon labor represents 
likewise what we find among animals and among savages. A pair of 
birds build a nest, and the nest then becomes the nest of these birds. 
The savage builds a hut for himself and his mate, and it becomes his hut 
until a stronger tribe comes and seizes or destroys it. He may be said 
to own the materials and the site by the right of first occupation, and 
the finished hut by the right of labor. Grotius, in criticising the Roman 
jurist Paulus, who had already anticipated Locke's theory and made 
labor a j"&stification of property, points out that, since nothing can be 
made except out of pre-existing matter, acquisition by means of labor 
depends ultimately on possession by means of occupation." — ^Ritchie: 
Natural Rights, p. 268. 

3. Kirkup: A History of Socialism, Chapter VII., p. 157. 

4. "Economists have always sought for the causes of value, and 
each school, according to its respective tendencies, has fastened on to 
one or other of them. Utility, scarcity, difficulty of attainment and 
labor are the principal ones which have been specially pointed out as 
the real cause or causes. — Gide: Political Economy, p. 54. 



320 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

3. Difficulty of attainment is the cause of value. 

4. Labor is the cause of value. 

Prof. Hadley only recognizes what he calls the * * com- 
petitive and the socialistic theories of value, ' ' but says 
there maj^ be ^^as many different theories of value as 
there are different views of business ethics.'' His 
competitive theory is the utility theory and his social- 
istic theory is the old theory of the English economists, 
namely, the labor cost of production.^ 

408. Utility.— Prof. Jevons, who was the first to 
teach the utility theory, says : ^ ^ Cost of production de- 
termines supply; supply determines final degree of util- 
ity; final degree of utility determines value," and Prof. 
Alfred Marshall calls attention to the fact that if cost 
of production determines utility and utility determines 
value, one might as well drop utility out of the series 
and agree with the old economists that cost of produc- 
tion (labor) determines value, because, says Marshall, 
''If A causes B, and B causes C, then A causes C."^ 

5. ''Value being essentially an ethical term, we may have as many 
different theories of value as there are different views of business ethics. 
But these views fall under two main heads; the commercial or com- 
petitive theory, which bases value upon Avhat the buyer is willing and 
able to offer for an article; and the socialistic theory, which bases it 
upon what the article has cost the seller in the way of toil and sacrifice. 
When we have grasped this ethical character of the controversy between 
the commercial and socialistic theories, we seize more clearly upon the 
points which are essential to the adjudication of this controversy. The 
question between the two parties is not primarily one of fact, but of 
advisability, not what necessarily determines value, but what kind of a 
price we shall stamp with our approval by calling it a value. The 
commercial theory is that the value of an article is the price which it 
would command under a system of free and open competition, as dis- 
tinct from one which is the result of special bargaining or fraudulent 
concealment. In this sense, the market price represents the temporary 
value of an article, and the normal price represents its permanent value. 
The advocates of the commercial theory hold that the competitive sys- 
tem serves the economic interests of society so well that the first rule 
of business morals is to conform thereto, and that the demands of com- 
mercial justice are generally satisfied by a schedule of prices made under 
the influence of fair and open competition, as allowed and encouraged by 
the common law of England and America."— Hadley : Economics, pp. 
92-93. 

6. Marshall: Principles of Economics, p. 566. 



Chap. XXV ^ THEORIES OF VALUE 321 

409o Scarcity.— In the same way, it might be said 
that if scarcity causes the valne of staple commodities, 
more labor might increase the supply and lessen the 
scarcity, or less labor lessen the supply and increase 
the scarcity. And so again: Labor determines scarcity 
and scarcity determines value. If so, then labor deter- 
mines value. 

410. Difficulty of Attainment.— Again, it might be 
said that if difficulty of attainment causes value, only 
labor can overcome the difficulties and produce the 
goods. The only possible measure of the difficulties 
is labor, and so, finally: Labor overcomes, measures 
or determines difficulties; difficulties determine value, 
or labor determines value. 

411. Competitive and Socialistic— Take Prof. Had- 
ley's competitive theory of value in the same way. 
Competition determines value. But who are the com- 
petitors ! How can any one competitor hope to outsell 
his rivals! Manifestly only by offering more products 
for a smaller sum. How can he do this ! Only by more 
efficient labor or better machinery. But labor pro- 
duced the machinery. Therefore, more or more effec- 
tive labor expended in the building and using of ma- 
chinery is the only way by which the successful com- 
petitor fixes the ruling or normal price; that is, estab- 
lishes the value in the market of any given article. 
And so, if competition causes value, and labor, in build- 
ing and using the machinery of production, determines 
competition, then labor determines competition and 
competition determines value. Again, drop out the 
central step in the series and labor determines value. 

412. Labor and the Produce of Labor.— Jevons 
says: ^'I hold labor to be essentially variable, so that 
its value must be determined by the value of the pro- 
duce, not the value of the produce by that of the la- 



322 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

bor/'^ This is like contending that a son is as tall as 
his father, but that the father is not as tall as the son. 
If the produce determines the value of labor, in the 
long run, then it can do so only because of its relation 
to labor as its creator. The produce cannot, in the 
nature of things, determine the value of labor, in 
the long run, unless conversely the labor is the mea- 
sure of the value of the produce. 

The Socialists would be just as willing to measure 
the value of labor by the value of the produce of labor, 
as to measure the value of the produce by the labor. 
Stated either end ahead, this is the very core of the 
controversy. Do labor and the produce of labor mu- 
tually determine the value of each other? And if labor 
has the power to produce goods for the market in ex- 
cess of what it can buy out of the market, is not that 
share of its products which it produces and cannot buy 
a surplus product which it is compelled to produce but 
cannot have!^ If it can produce it, why can it not 
have all it produces! 

413. Marginal Utility.— The Austrian economists 
while not abandoning the historical method have 
added deductive processes to their methods of study. 
Wieser and B5hm-Bawerk are of this school, as 
well as most of the current American defenders of cap- 
italism. These economists contend for still another 
theory of value, that is, that marginal utility deter- 
mines value^— that is, the value of any article is deter- 

7. Jevons: Theory of Political Economy. 

8. "We know, however, from what has gone before, that the labor 
process may continue beyond the time necessary to reproduce and in- 
corporate in the product a mere equivalent for the value of the labor- 
power. Instead of the six hours that are sufficient for the latter pur- 
pose, the process may continue for twelve hours. Tlie action of labor- 
power, therefore, not only reproduces its own value, but produces value 
over and above it. This surplus value is the difference between the 
value of the product and the value of the elements consumed in the for- 
mation of that product; in other words, of the means of production and 
the labor power." — Marx: Capital, p. 191. 

9. These economists mean by "marginal utility" practically the 
same thing as Professor Jevons meant by "final utility." 



Chap. XXV THEORIES OF VALUE 323 

mined by the last margin of demand. This means that, 
had the price been higher, some one who did buy at 
the current price and whdse purchase was necessary 
in order to maintain the price, would not have 
bought; and so the "higgling of the market" would 
have forced down the average price in the market, and 
so the value of the article in question. But that last 
margin of demand for any given article may constantly 
fluctuate, as labor and machinery are more or less effec- 
tive in the production of the articles exchanged against 
each other, and so labor, in the building or using of 
the machinery of production, comes back as the one 
universal and indispensable factor in determining 
value. 

414. Labor and Machinery.— If, however, a distinc- 
tion is to be drawn between labor and machinery, and 
values held to be the joint product of both labor and 
machinery, with the result that labor is getting more 
than its share of the product in wages, and machinery 
is getting less than the share which machinery creates, 
as is contended, then, inasmuch as machinery has no 
personal needs, no standard of living to maintain and 
no children to educate, the workers who do have all 
these demands to meet ought to own the machinery 
in order that they may have for their own use the total 
product of their own labor and their own machinery. 
And it is not sound public policy not to so provide the 
workers with their own tools. 

415. Justifying Exploitation.— In seeking after the 
^^ cause of value" it is not an impertinent inquiry to 
ask after the cause of this change in the theories of 
value. Why have the economists abandoned the old 
ground? Why do they persist in denying that labor, 
the work of mind and hand, past and present, the cre- 
ative power of man applied to natural resources, cre- 
ates all wealth and that as there is more or less of the 



324 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

waste of life in the creation of any given article, in the 
long run, and in the large and general average, there 
is more or less of value 1 Is not the denial of this labor 
theory of value primarily an effort to find a theoret- 
ical justification for the wealth of the idlers and the 
poverty of the toilers ! 

416. Supply and Demand.— If it be admitted that 
marginal utility, that is, the balance of supply and de- 
mand, fixes the ratios at which articles exchange for 
each other at any given time, still it is true that labor 
alone can provide the supply, and will be able to pro- 
vide the supply for the larger or smaller demand only 
as the larger or smaller demand is, in the last analysis, 
made against vital human energy wasted in the proc- 
esses of production. There is no theory of value under 
which one can provide more seats at an opera with the 
house already packed, in time for the entertainment 
already under way, or increase the supply of straw- 
berries, after the season for planting has already 
passed. But labor alone can increase the number of 
opera seats, or the strawberry crop, in order to meet a 
later and larger demand. 

The effort to find an economic defense for the ex- 
ploitation of labor through abstract, conflicting theo- 
ries of value, will not avail. They cannot change the 
facts of the current economic situation. 

417. Service for Service.— No Socialist asks for the 
service of others without reward. The Socialist can- 
not be thrust aside from the effort to secure to all the 
just reward of industry and the equal opportunity for 
all to be industrious, by any theories regarding the ab- 
stract question as to what causes value. 

418. Monopoly and Value.— We must not lose sight 
of another and most important consideration. Price 
is the value of any given article stated in terms of 
money. But this price, this value, is fixed arbitrarily 



Chap, XXV THEORIES OF VALUE 325 

as to some articles, by the trusts ; and the power of the 
trust-controlled articles to compel an exchange in the 
market without any regard to the cost of production, 
either in labor or in the use of machinery, without any 
regard to utility, scarcity, or difficulty of attainment, 
and without the competition on which Prof. Hadley 
depends to determine values,— this power to force ex- 
changes at arbitrary prices is purely a power which 
exists as the result of monopoly, under which the sole 
consideration is '^not to charge more than the traffic 
will bear." If it be said that this is the very process 
by which values are determined and that ^'what the 
traffic will bear" is the measure of marginal utility,— 
that last and final sale without which prices must fall 
—then the answer is, that this is essentially not a 
process of exchange, but of outright robbery. It is tak- 
ing the ^^ golden eggs" as rapidly as the industrial 
''goose" will lay them, and providing the goose with 
such returns only as will keep up the laying of more 
eggs. This is exactly what is taking place. Labor 
is able to sell itself only for the cost in labor of produc- 
ing more labor. But labor produces more than the 
cost of its own reproduction. This product of labor in 
excess of the labor cost of producing labor is the ' ' sur- 
plus value" of Karl Marx. Its appropriation by the 
capitalist is possible because of monopoly in the owner- 
ship of the means of producing the means of life. The 
process of creating and appropriating this surplus the 
capitalist calls employing labor. The Socialist calls 
it exploiting labor. 

419. Theft, Not Exchange.— This is not exchange. 
It is theft. It is the robber taking all the victim has, 
except enough to induce him to produce some more in 
order that the next intended robbery may still be pro- 
ductive of the largest possible returns. But, if the rule 
of the robber is to be ruled out, and justice in exchange 



326 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

is to be sought for, then the ultimate of all exchanges 
is an exchange of the services of labor. And there can 
be no other basis than that of service for service, of 
labor for labor,— how much of labor in producing oil, 
for how much of labor in producing bread! No theory 
of values can apply in explaining how oil sells for 
thirty times its cost, both in labor and in the use of 
machinery in its production, with wide fields of unde- 
veloped oil, and whole armies of the poorly paid wait- 
ing for better jobs.^^ Private monopoly is the only ex- 
planation. This private monopoly is unendurable. It 
cannot last. Collective ownership, and the collective 
use of the means of production, is the only remedy for 
this private monopoly. Collective ownership and dem- 
ocratic management will leave labor the only claimant 
against the products of industry, no matter what the- 
ories of value may be thought to be most scientific. 

420. Who, Not What, Produces Value.-' 'The real 
question is not what produces value, but who produces 
value 1 ' ' And if the real producer is producing values 
which for any reason he cannot have for his own use, 
while those who produce nothing do have his products 
to use, then it becomes a question of sound public pol- 
icy to create such conditions as will enable those who 
produce values to have, for their own use, the values 
which they produce.^^ 

10. "The certainty that a competitor will be ruined, if he appears, 
takes away all probability of his appearing; and this probability affords 
the only natural check of any importance on the action of the mo- 
nopoly."— Clark : The Control of the Trust, p. 75. 

11. "Every man has the right to the product of his own industry, 
because it is a part of himself; into it he has put a portion of his life. 
His life is his own, therefore this portion of his life is his own. The 
artist paints a picture; the musician composes a symphony; the author 
writes a book; into this picture, this symphony, this book, the artist, 
musician, author, has gone. Because the artist has projected himself 
into the picture, the musician into the symphony, the author into the 
book, this product of himself belongs to him. And what is true of the 
artist, of the musician, of the author, is true of every laborer. The 
shoemaker projects himself into the shoes; the carpenter into the house; 



Chap. XXV THEORIES OF VALUE 327 

421. The Share of Naturec— In so far as different 
persons jointly perform necessary services in the cre- 
ation of values, let each have his just share of the values 
so created. If nature contributes and stands ready to 
contribute in the production of value, and if society a^ 
a whole contributes and stands ready to contribute in 
the production of value, then no possible scheme of dis- 
tributive justice can justly give to any one a greater 
claim than to each and to all, so far as nature and 
society contribute to the production of value. 

422. Machinery.— If machinery and organization 
contribute and stand ready to contribute in the crea- 
tion of value, they are lifeless and inanimate things, 
and can have no wants, and therefore can have no 
rights, and those who stand between the worker and 

the loom-worker into the cloth. These also are a part of the man. Into 
them he has put his brain work or his handiwork; therefore they are\ 
his. This right of every man to the product of his o\\ti labor is a 
natural right. Society did not confer it; society cannot take it away. 
Society may fail to protect it, or may violate it, but the right itself is 
absolute. Wherever organic law violates this right it is unjust; when- 
ever it fails to protect this right it is inefficient. It was for this reason 
that slavery was unjust. The injustice of slavery did not lie in the fact 
that they were ill-fed, ill-clothed, or ill-housed. If it had been true that 
they were better housed and fed and clothed in slavery than in free- 
dom, still slavery would not have been justified. The evil of slavery 
was not that families were separated. If the law had provided ex- 
plicitly that slave families should not be separated, still slavery would 
have been unjust. The injustice was not in specific acts of cruelty. If 
there had never been a Legree, still slavery would have been unjust. It 
was not that the slave was denied education. In Rome the slaves were 
educated, and authors, copyists and literary men were held in slavery, 
and slavery was not just. The wrong of slavery lay in this: that per- 
sonality Avas invaded; the product of the man was taken from him; 
he had put a part of his life out into the world and he was robbed of it. 
Whenever and howsoever society does this, it does injustice. 

So, again, if society is so organized that men cannot engage in pro- 
ductive industry, it is unjustly organized. The command, "By the sweat 
of thy brow shalt thou earn thy daily bread," involves a prerogative 
even more than a command. If society is so organized that large masses 
of men cannot, by the sweat of their brow, earn their daily bread, it is 
unjustly organized, "Enforced idleness," says Carlyle, "is the English- 
man's hell." There have been times in the past, in the history of this 
country, — and if the industrial organization of to-day remains un- 
changed there will be such times in the future, — when thousands of men 
have been driven into that enforced idleness which is the Englishman's 
hell. Any organization of society which prevents masses of the people 
from earning their daily bread by the sweat of their brow, or which 



328 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

his tools must render a better service, if they wish to 
share in the products, than simply to consent to the 
use of the lifeless tools and to the benefits of organiza- 
tion. If they can prove a right to the private owner- 
ship of the tools, which the workers cannot use with- 
out the consent of those who are not workers, and 
these idlers will not consent unless they be permitted 
to appropriate values they do not create, then it is 
contrary to wise public policy that the workers shall 
longer be without the tools of production to freely use 
in their own behalf. 

423. Human Energy and the Landlord, the Capital- 
ist and the Laborer.— Nature and the past efforts of 
society may have provided the means of production, 
but production is impossible without the present ex- 
penditure of individual human energy, that is, human 
life. 

That in the production of value the landlord con- 
tributes human energy or life is denied. 

That in the production of value the capitalist con- 
tributes human energy, or life, in the form of machin- 
ery and organization, is admitted. That he contributes 
his own energy, or life, is denied. Machinery and or- 
ganization are simply the union of raw materials, freely 
furnished by nature, and human labor, energy, or life, 
in time past. It will be rarely found to have been pro- 
duced by the union of free raw materials and the 
labor, energy, or life, of their present possessors. The 

fails to enable them so to earn it if they will to do so, is an unjust or- 
ganization of society. So, any organization of society which, allowing 
men to work, still fails adequately and rightfully to adjust the relations 
between the workers, and takes so much for the one class that it leaves 
practically, nothing for the other class, or leaves them but a mere pit- 
tance and bare subsistence, is an unjust organization of society. The 
man who has put his life into his labor has a right to the product of 
that life. If, in the complexity of modern society he is combined with 
others in that production, he has a right to a fair, just and equable 
share in the product of the combined industry." — Abbott: Rights of 
Man, pp. 104-106. 



Chap. XXV THEORIES OF VALUE 329 

fact that the capitalist possesses the machinery and 
organization, and that the laborer does not, is not a 
proof of the former's rightful possession. If they are 
to be used to impoverish and enslave the worker, then 
this situation, instead of proving the capitalist 's right 
to social protection in appropriating the products of 
the laborer, only proves the laborer's right to social 
protection while he constructs for his own use the 
tools of his own industry. 

424. The Reward of Tyranny.— That the manager 
contributes labor, energy, or life, in the management 
of industry is not denied. The Socialist asks that all 
such necessary labor shall be justly rewarded. But the 
manager does not contribute what the workers cannot 
better contribute. He does not provide the manage- 
ment in the manner most economical and beneficial to 
the workers themselves. And finally, he does exercise 
personal, tyrannical control in the management of the 
industry of others, holding the workers in the relation 
of servants. Whereas, industrial democracy will not 
only produce better industrial results, but will imme- 
diately make the workers free men and women. The 
managers ought not to be rewarded by the workers 
with any share of the products for managing the en- 
terprise in such a manner as secures the smallest re- 
turns for the workers and holds them as the victims 
of the relation of mastery and servitude as the condi- 
tion of their existence. 

425. Summary.— 1. The value of any article means 
the amount of its purchasing power in exchange for 
other articles in the market. 

2. If value is created by labor, it follows that the 
laborers who create the value ought to have the values 
their labor creates. 

3. If value is not created by labor alone but by 
** social conditions," by *^ mental attitudes," by ma- 



330 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

chines, by *^ social factors" other than labor, then 
sound public policy demands that all social factors 
shall serve all mankind alike and the least society can 
do is to provide equal economic opportunities for all. 

4. All theories of value fail in the presence of 
monopoly, and monopoly controls the means, of produc- 
ing the means of life. Vast organizations of industry 
make possible great economies, but if privately con- 
trolled involve monopoly. \ 

5. Services cannot be rendered nor goods produced 
without the waste of human energy, or life. Whoever 
refuses to contribute of his energy, or life, to the ser- 
vice of others can have no just claim to the service or 
to the goods which are produced with the waste of 
energy, or life, of others. 

6. If under current conditions goods are so pro- 
duced and services are so rendered that those who pro- 
duce goods, or render service, or are ready to render 
service, cannot secure the service or the goods of others 
in the same proportion as they are ready to serve 
others, then sound public policy demands such a change 
as shall create such conditions as will make this possi- 
ble, but that is Socialism. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Why is the exchange of goods necessary? 

2. What single thing is possessed in common by all exchangeable 
goods '? 

3. What is value? 

4. Who first taught the labor theory of value ? 

5. Who afterward taught it? 

6. What advantage did the Socialists take of this theory? 

7. Name other theories of value. 

8. Who first taught tne utility theory ? 

9. Show that labor has an important place in all theories of value. 

10. Who teach the maxginal utility theory ? What is this theory ? 

11. If labor and machinery are joint producers, what then? 

12. How is labor related to supply and demand? 

13. How does monopoly affect all theories of value? 

14. What is meant by charging all the traffic will bear? What is 
surplus value? 

15. What is the only rational remedy for monopoly? 

16. Compare what with who, in the inquiry for the cause of value, 

17. Who contribute to production? Who should share? 

18. Can the service of the private manager be better provided for? 

19. Why is private management objectionable? 



CHAPTER XXVI 

JUSTICE IN EXCHANGE— THE MONEY QUESTION 

426. The Origin of Money.— In the earlier forms of 
society, when each tribe produced, stored and nsed, un- 
der common ownership, by co-operative labor and for 
the common use of all the tribe, there was no money 
because there was no private exchange for profits and 
so no call for any general medium of exchange. There 
was no system of credits, and hence, no debts, and 
therefore no call for a means by which the debtor could 
pay and discharge the claims of the creditor. There 
was no general market, and hence, no demand for any 
single measure by which the power of any article in the 
market, to exchange itself for any other article, could 
be easily determined. 

427. The Necessity for Money.— With the develop- 
ment of private ownership in the means of production, 
and the coming of the market, it became necessary to 
provide something which could be used in all of these 
several ways. The occasion for money did not exist 
until private ownership in the means of production and 
individual enterprise in the management of exchange 
had first come, and with the displacement of these it 
will again disappear in all of the main functions which 

331 



332 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

it now performs. But with private ownership and indi- 
vidual enterprise in the work of production and ex- 
change once in force, or so long as they remain in force, 
there can be no subject in economics of more impor- 
tance than that of money.^ 

It is the purpose of this chapter to show just what 
the service of money is, how great its importance now 
is, why some of its functions— and those the ones al- 
ways in dispute— will not be needed under Socialism, 
and hence, how the whole money question, which is in- 
capable of just solution under capitalism, will vanish 
with the coming of the co-operative commonwealth. 

428. Not at First the Creature of Law.— Money was 
not created by legislation. It existed before legislation 
and independent of the legislator. It came into exist- 
ence not by political action, good or bad. It came into 
existence along with the market and solely because of 
its economic necessity. 

429. Earliest Forms of Money.— All sorts of things 
have been used as money. Cattle were an old form of 
money. The word ^ ^ pecuniary, " meaning of, or relat- 
ing to money, is derived from ' ' pecus, ' ' meaning cattle, 
and so there is preserved to us, in this word, an allu- 
sion to the fact that among all European peoples the 
money wa's once cattle. Sheep, wheat, dates, rice, co- 
coa, olive oil, rock salt, tea, tobacco, whiskey, beaver 
skins, iron, tin, lead, copper, platinum, and gold and 
silver, are among the things which have been used as 
money. The American Indians had a method of mak- 
ing records by the use of beads so strung on strings 
and woven together as to make a hieroglyphic repre- 
sentation of things and events. They were made into 
belts and other ornaments. The beads were made of 

1. "The division of labor converts the product of labor into a com- 
modity, and thereby makes necessary its further conversion into money." 
— Marx: Capital, p. 81. 



Chap. XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION 333 

variously colored shells and embodied a good deal of 
labor. The finished product was called wampum and 
was used as money. 

430. Necessary Qualities.— It was found by experi- 
ence that whatever was to be used for money should 
possess in the highest degree possible five qualities: 
(1) It should be imperishable; (2) have large value in 
small compass and weight; (3) be capable of being di- 
vided into very small quantities, and be reunited if 
necessary without injury; (4) easy to recognize, and 
(5) all samples should be alike. It is because silver and 
gold so largely possess these qualities that they were 
finally adopted as the money of the world.^ 

While money was at the first established by the 
economic necessities of the market, when once estab- 
lished, political intrigue and legislative action in the 
manipulation of the money metals, and in making na- 
tional notes or bonds for payment in one or the other, 
or both of them, have at one time protected and at 
another defrauded the public through all the years of 
their history. 

431. Its Functions.— According to the economists 
there are three functions of money: (1) a^ medium of ex- 

2. 'The ideal requisites for a perfect money material have been well 
stated, among others, by Jevons; but it is necessary to separate these, 
accordingly as they apply to a standard, or to a medium of exchange : 

I. Standard (1) Value; (2) Standard of value. 

IT. Medium of Exchange; (3) Portability; (4) Indestructibility; 
(5) Homogeneity; (6) Divisibility (and reunion) ; (7) Cognizibility. 

'•It Avill be seen at a glance that, where the medium of exchange is 
different from the standard, the requisites can not be indifferently ap- 
plied to both. Articles whose prices are expressed in terms of the 
standard, may be actually exchanged by means which do not call the 
standard into use. * * * As soon as legal conditions permitted any 
permanence of contracts, and as soon as the time element entered 
materially into industrial relations (especially with the extension of 
division of labor), the third function of money as a standard of deferred 
payments assumed importance. This function, however, is not different 
from that of a simple standard, except that the former covers compari- 
sons in which the time element appears. By some it might be regarded 
only as a case of the standard function. It is not important, however, 
how it is distinguished, provided only that the problems arising from 
the time element in contracts shall receive full attention." — Laughlin: 
The Principles of Money, pp. 21-22. 



334 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

change; (2) a measure of value; (3) a standard for 
the settlement of deferred payments. 

432. A Medium of Exchange.— 1. As a medium of 
exchange money is simply a labor-saving device. One 
produces bread only and wishes to exchange bread in 
the market for all his other necessities, such as other 
articles of food and his clothing, fuel and house rent. 
With such a purpose in mind he comes with a load of 
bread. But suppose there is no money, no single ar- 
ticle which can be used with which to fix the price of 
the bread and of all the articles to be obtained with 
bread. How many loaves of bread for a ton of coal, a 
coat, a month's rent? Before he can sell his bread he 
must fix a price, and as there is no money he must make 
up a list of all the articles he wants, about the cost of 
production of most of which articles he knows little or 
nothing, but nevertheless he must fix a price for each, 
in bread, or a price for his bread in each of the other 
articles, which is the same thing. How many loaves of 
bread is a coat worth? How many loaves of bread is 
a ton of coal worth 1 If he will make up a full market 
report of the price of bread he must make an entry for 
every other article in the market. If the merchant 
wanted to mark the price of his goods and there were 
but one hundred articles in the market and no money 
in existence, he would be obliged to make as many en- 
tries for each article as he had articles in his store. 

But this is not all. When our baker had established 
the value of his bread in all of the articles which he de- 
sired to purchase, it would yet be necessary to find 
those who had the food, clothing, fuel and rent in quan- 
tities to exchange for bread and of the kinds and qual- 
ities which the baker could use. It is readily seen that 
it would be an impossible undertaking to find the man 
who would have what the baker wants and would want 
what the baker has. Under the wage system it would 



Chap. XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION 335 

be about as impossible to do business without money 
as it would be to do business without transportation. 
And so all races of men, whenever they have reached 
the stage of attempting exchanges have hit upon some 
article which all would accept, not because all wanted 
to use the article, but inasmuch as all would accept 
it, the prices of all other articles could be fixed in the 
terms of this one article, and so all articles be more 
easily exchanged for each other. 

433. A Measure of Value.— 2. The economists also 
teach that money is a measure of value.^ It is easy 
enough to use a foot rule in measuring lengths. How 
can one use money to measure the value of things ? In 
doing this there are two things to be comprehended: 
one is the measure itself and other is the thing meas- 
ured. The length of the foot rule is arbitrarily deter- 
mined by a standard foot with which any particular 
rule can be compared. With this for a standard, the 
length of which is easily comprehended, it is easy to de- 
termine and to understand greater or shorter lengths 
by applying the rule. Not so with money. To be sure 
there is a standard dollar, but that is a standard of 
weight and fineness by which the weight and fineness 
of any particular dollar can be determined; but that 
does not in any way help us to understand the value of 
the dollar, of proper weight and fineness, which is it- 
self to be the measure of other values. How can this 
measure of value itself be measured so that one can 
comprehend its value and so comprehend the value of 
the other things to which this measure may be applied? 

434. Value.— In the discussions of the economists 
they make the word ^^ value" mean the power which 

3. "The first chief function of money is to supply commodities with 
the material for the expression of their values, or to represent their 
values as magnitudes of the same denomination, quantitatively equal, 
and quantitatively comparable. It thus serves as a universal measure 
of value."— Marx? Capital, p. 66. 



336 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

any given article has to exchange itself in the market 
for other articles, and the word ^' price" is made to 
mean that exchange value expressed in the terms of 
money, as in dollars and cents.^ Thus it is seen that 
any article has more or less value as it is able to ex- 
change itself for a larger or smaller quantity of other 
goods ; and the price is high or low as it indicates the 
greater or less power of an article to so exchange itself 
for other things. 

435. A Common Quality of All Goods.— There is 
only one thing which the things which have power to 
exchange themselves in the market all have in com- 
mon, and that is the labor power, the waste of human 
life expended in their production. This is as true of 
the original dollar as it is of wheat or cloth. Just as 
all things have length, and so a fixed and standard 
rule of given length can be used to measure all other 
things as to length, so all of the things in the market, 
which have power there to exchange themselves for 
other things, have this one quality in common, and no 
other, that the production of each article involves the 
waste of human life. If there is to be any measure 
which can determine the relation of these articles to 
each other it must be something common to them all, 
and further it must be something which, if possessed in 
a larger or smaller degree, will correspondingly in- 
crease or diminsh the power of any article to exchange 
itself for other things. That which .is exchanged in 
the market is not really wheat and cloth and iron ; it is 
the services which produced the wheat and cloth and 
iron, the human energy, that is, the human life ex- 
pended in their production; and hence, the real ques- 
tion, always unstated, but always present, is: How 
much of human life expended in the production of 

4. "Price is the moneA'-iiai'iie of the labor realized in a commodity." 
— ^Marx: Capital, p'. 74". 



Chap. XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION 337 

wheat shall be exchanged for how much of human life 
expended to produce cloth or iron? The same thing is 
true of all other articles in the market, including the 
gold in a dollar as truly as the cotton in a shirt. 

Under capitalism it is assumed that gold or silver, 
or silver and gold together, with printed promises to 
pay one or the other or both, can be used as a just 
measure of value. This will be disputed further on, 
but in this place the purpose is to make clear how this 
measure of value is applied in actual use. 

436. Applying the Measure.— If one goes into the 
market with any article which he has made, he knows 
what it has cost him in labor. If he knows nothing of 
the other articles and the price is fixed on them in the 
terms of some other article, as money, and he can learn 
the price of the article which he has brought, through 
his knowledge of his own article, and his ability to 
compare its price with the price of all the rest, he can 
at once measure the value of all the other articles, as 
related to his own, and so be able to understand their 
relation to himself, as a wealth-producer, and to esti- 
mate with some degree of accuracy what each article 
would cost him in time and toil to become its possessor. 

437. Both Medium and Measure.— The value of 
other things in the market is determined by their abil- 
ity to exchange for more or less money. The value of 
money is in the same way determined by its ability to 
exchange for more or less of other things. An indi- 
vidual is able to comprehend the range of all values by 
the relation of the price of each in money to the price 
of some article which he has himself produced. He ex- 
changes his own products for money only to again ex- 
change the money for other products. He is exchang- 
ing his own products, which he cannot use, for the 
products pf others, which he can use, and money not 
only acts as a medium of e:ji:changO, but measures and 



338 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

reveals the value of each article while making the ex- 
change. 

The value which things have for use independent 
of their power in the market is called use value. Air 
has the greatest use value but no exchange value. 
Money as a measure of value has to do with exchange 
values only: There is no such thing in economics as a 
measure of use values. Political economy takes no ac- 
count of use values. It only deals with things as re- 
lated to the market. It is the power of things in the 
market to exchange themselves for other things which 
it is the function of money to measure. 

438. A Standard of Deferred Payments.— 3. The 
economists further teach that it is the function of 
money to act as a standard for the settlement of de- 
ferred payments. 

Whatever is the standard for the settlement of de- 
ferred payments ought not to fluctuate in its own 
value ; that is, its ability to exchange itself for the gen- 
eral average of other things ought to be the same at 
all times. If one sells and buys again at the same time, 
the same range of prices is in force when he buys as 
when he sells. The measure and medium of exchange 
has not had the time to shrink or lengthen after he has 
let go the article of his own production, and before he 
has gotten the article which he was seeking for his 
own use. But if one sells today and then buys a year 
later, it will be rare indeed that he will be able to buy 
for the same money the same things as when he sold 
a year before. Or if one lends to another on a year's 
time, it will be very rare that he will be able to buy 
the same things for the same money on the day of pay- 
ment as when the loan was made. If he lends wheat 
and wheat is to be paid again and the price of wheat 
doubles in the meantime, other things remaining un- 
changed, he can buy twice as much with the wheat re- 



Chap. XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION . d 

turned as he could have bought with the wheat he had 
lent at the time the loan was made. In the same way 
if one borrows money with which to buy from the mar- 
ket things for his use, and depends on selling, at a 
later day in order to get the money with which to 
make repayment, if the range of prices goes down, that 
is, if the value of money as measured by the things it 
will buy, goes up, then the debtor must sell more things 
to get the money with which to make his payment than 
he was able to buy with the money he had borrowed. 
If, on the other hand, average prices had advanced, 
that is, if mone}^ had become cheaper as compared with 
the things which it would buy, then the debtor would 
sell fewer things to get the money with which to make 
his repayment and the creditor would be able to buy 
fewer things with the money paid, although he had the 
same number of dollars, than he could have bought 
with the money he lent at the time the loan was made. 

439. The Debtor and Creditor.— Every increase in 
the value of money, as compared with things which 
money buys, is a benefit to the creditor and an injury 
to the debtor. Every decrease in the value of money is 
a corresponding injury to the creditor and benefit to 
the debtor. This is the reason why those who have lent 
money are always wanting it to be scarce and therefore 
dear, and those who have borrowed money always 
want it plentiful and therefore cheap. It shows why 
in every money war the creditors and debtors are al- 
ways arrayed against each other.^ 

440. The Ratio Between Other Things and Dollars. 
—It is a general law of the economists that whenever 

5. "'The question of money, or of credit, for they are the same, is 
only of superficial importance, and really does not interest the wage 
worker, being wholly a question between the debtor and the creditor 
class. When the creditor lends his money, he wants it cheap, or rather 
plenty, with a minimum purchasing power. When he collects it, he 
wants it dear, with a maximum purchasing power." — J. K. Ingalls; 
Economic Equities, p. 54. 



340 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

the supply of any article is iacreased, the demand re- 
maining the same, the power of any fixed amount of 
that article to exchange itself for other things, that is, 
its value, is correspondingly decreased; but if the sup- 
ply should be decreased, under the same conditions, 
then the value would correspondingly increase. Stated 
in another way this law means that a big crop means 
a low price per bushel, and a crop failure a large price 
per bushel. When this law is applied to money it 
works in the same way as when applied to any other 
article. It means that the more money there is in cir- 
culation and available for business the less each dollar 
will buy and the easier it is for those with other things 
to sell to get dollars, but it also means that the fewer 
dollars there are in circulation and available for busi- 
ness the more each dollar will buy and the harder it is 
for those with other things to sell to get dollars in ex- 
change for other things. 

441. Printed Dollars.— In consideration of this fact 
it has been proposed to abandon the plan of having 
the material of each dollar of the same value as the 
dollar itself and to substitute printed dollars, of no 
value in themselves but to make them valuable not as 
has been so often said, by ^* act of congress'* declaring 
them valuable, but, through the power of congress to 
make them receivable for government charges, by mak- 
ing them receivable by all who enforce their collections 
through the courts and by limiting their volume. It 
is this power to determine what shall pass as a legal 
tender, be receivable for public charges and the power 
to control the volume of money which could make a 
good and sound currency, without gold, by act of con- 
gress, if it were only certain that congress itself would 
at all times be good and sound. There is no mathemat- 
ical or economic difficulty in the way of doing so, but 
there would be no natural limit to the number of dollars 



Chap. XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION 341 

which might be printed. It is evident that the credit- 
ors would always be struggling for fewer dollars and 
the debtors for more of them, and the danger of disas- 
ter would always be present in every act of congress. 
By act of congress the volume could be unduly limited 
as( well as unduly extended and there would be the 
possibility of using the action of congress to distress 
the debtor as well as for his relief. As a matter of 
fact, in dealing with the greenbacks, the power of con- 
gress has been almost uniformly used in the interest of 
those who were anxious for fewer dollars rather than 
for the relief of those who would be helped by the 
larger number of dollars. 

442. Bank-Made Money.— The money-lenders have 
resorted to the paper dollar of the private banking 
corporations.^ While in the use of such money disaster 
is likely to fall all the time on the borrowers, the dan- 
ger of its use is greater than in the use of ' ' money by 

6. "The system of public credit, 1. e., of national debts, whose 
origin we discover in Genoa and Venice as early as the middle ages, 
took possession of Europe generally during the manufacturing period. 
The colonial system with its maritime trade and commercial wars served 
as a forcing-house for it. Thus it first took root in Holland. National 
debts, i. e., the alienation of the state, — whether despotic, constitutional 
or republican — marked with its stamp the capitalistic era. The only 
part of the so-called national wealth that actually enters into the col- 
lective possessions of modern peoples is — their national debt. Hence, as 
a necessary consequence, the modern doctrine, that a nation becomes the 
richer the more deeply it is in debt. Public credit becomes the credo of 
capital, and with the rise of national debt-making, want of faith in the 
national debt takes the place of the blasphemy against the holy ghost, 
which may not be forgiven. 

"The public debt becomes one of the most powerful levers of prim- 
itive accumulation. As with the stroke of an enchanter's wand, it en- 
dows barren money with the powder of breeding and thus turns it into 
capital, without the necessity of its exposing itself to the troubles and 
risks inseparable from its employment in industry, or even in usury. 
The state creditors actually give nothing away, for the sum lent is 
transformed into public bonds, easily negotiable, which go on func- 
tioning in their hands just as so much hard cash would. But further, 
apart from the class of lazy annuitants thus created, and from the 
improvised wealth of the financiers, middlemen between the government 
and the nation — as also apart from the tax-farmers, merchants, private 
manufacturers, to whom a good part of every national loan renders 
the service of a capital fallen from heaven — the -national debt has 
given rise to joint stock companies, te dealings in negotiable effects of 



342 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

the act of congress." This bank note money puts the 
control of the volume of money, and hence of its value, 
into the hands of a small class in a way which makes 
possible the turning of both the increase and decrease 
of the volume of money to their own benefit. They will 
be able to make money plentiful and prices high when 
they are lending money and accepting collaterals, but 
there will be nothing to prevent them from making it 
scarce and dear when they get ready to withdraw from 
circulation their own money and to keep both the 
jnoney and the collaterals.''' 

Asset banking is simply a proposal to base the 
bank's circulation on whatever securities may be 
deemed satisfactory to the public authorities, after the 

all kinds, and to agiotage, in a word to stock exchange gambling and 
the modern bankocracy. 

"At their birth the great banks, decorated with national titles, were 
only associations of private speculators, who placed themselves by the 
side of the governments, and, thanks to the privileges they received, 
were in a position to advance money to the state. Hence the accumula- 
tion of the national debt has no more ,inf allible measure than the suc- 
cessive rise in the stock of these banks, whose full development dates 
from the founding of the Bank of England in 1694. The Bank of Eng- 
land began with lending its money to the government at 8 per cent; at 
the same time it was empowered by Parliament to coin money out of 
the same capital, by lending it again to the public in the form of bank 
notes. It was allowed to use these notes for discounting bills, making 
advances on commodities, and for buying the precious metals. It was 
not long ere this credit Bank of England made its loans to the state, 
and paid, on account of the state, the interest on the public debt. It 
was not enough that the bank gave with one hand and took back more 
with the other; it remained, even whilst receiving the eternal creditor 
of the nation down to the last shilling advanced. Gradually it became 
inevitably the receptacle of the metallic hoard of the country, and the 
center of gravity of all commercial credit. What effect was produced 
on their contemporaries hy the sudden uprising of this brood of banko- 
erats, financiers, rentiers, brokers, stock jobbers, etc., is proved by the 
writings of that time." — Marx: Capital, pp. 779-80. 

7. "But a time came when the suction of the usurers so wasted the 
life of the community that the stream of bullion ceased to flow from 
the capital (Rome) to the frontiers; then as the sustaining force failed, 
the line of troops along the Danube and the Rhine was drawn out until 
it broke, and the barbarians poured in unchecked." — Adams: Law of 
Civilization and Decay, p. 46. 

"By degrees as competition sharpened after the Reformation, a 
type was developed which, perhaps, may be called the merchant ad- 
venturer; men like Child and Boulton, bold, energetic, audacious. 
Gradually energy vented itself .more and more freely through these 



Char XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION 343 

same manner as bank currency is now based on na- 
tional bonds. It is in effect the adoption by the banks 
of the proposals of the Populists with the exception 
that the circulation is to be privately controlled rather 
than by the public, and is to be based on debts rather 
than on property, but as the debts are to be secured by 

merchants, until they became the ruling power in England, their gov- 
ernment lasting from 1688 to 1815. At length they fell through the 
very brilliancy of their genius. The wealth they amassed so rapidly 
accumulated until it prevailed over all other forms of force, and by 
so doing raised another variety of man to power. These last were the 
modern bankers. 

"With the advent of the bankers, a profound change came over 
civilization, for contraction began. Self-interest had from the outset 
taught the producer that to prosper he should deal in wares which 
tended rather to rise than fall in value, relatively to coin. The op- 
posite instinct possessed the usurer; he found that he grew rich 
when money appreciated, or when the borrower had to part with more 
property to pay his debt when it fell due than the cash lent him 
would have bought on the day the obligation was contracted. As to- 
ward the close of the eighteenth century, the great hoards of London 
passed into the possession of men of the latter type, the third and 
most redoubtable variety of economic intellect arose to prominence, 
a variety of which perhaps the most conspicuous example is the family 
of Rothschild. * * During the long [Napoleonic] wars Europe plunged 
into debt, contracting loans in depreciated paper, or in coin which was 
unprecedentedly cheap because of the abundance of the precious metals. 

"In the year 1809, prices reached the greatest altitude they ever, 
attained in modern, or even, perhaps, in all history. * * * From 
the year 1810, nature has favored the usurious mind even as she fa- 
vored it in Rome, from the death of Augustus, 

"Moreover, both in ancient and modern life, the first symptom 
of this profound economic and intellectual revolution was identical. 
Tacitus has described the panic which was the immediate forerunner of 
the rise of the precious metals in the first century; and in 1810 a sim- 
ilar panic occurred in London, when prices suddenly fell fifteen per cent, 
and when the most famous magnate of the stock exchange was ruined 
and killed. * * * From that day to this the slow contraction has 
continued, with only the break of little more than twenty years, when 
the gold of California and Australia came in an overwhelming flood; 
and from that day to this the same series of phenomena have succeeded 
one another, which eighteen hundred years ago marked the emascula- 
tion of Rome."— Adams : Law of Civilization and Decay, pp. 321-325. 

"Not less formidable is the financial monopoly. A certain sub- 
stance made into a certain form and bearing a certain stamp is made 
the representative of its own intrinsic value, in any form whatever. 
The existence of this circulating medium gives rise to special enter- 
prises for the exchange of this only. As wealth increases more rap- 
idly than money, and the exchange of products becomes too great to be 
carried on with the amount of the circulating medium, resort is had 
to paper money, in the nature of obligations to pay in the recognized 
medium. These obligations, in the course of time and the demands and 
vicissitudes of trade, assume a thousand forms, and become loaded with 



344 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

property it is the same thing in effect. The proposal, 
if adopted, would simply extend the range within 
which the banks could control the fluctuations in prices 
by alternately increasing and diminishing the volume 
of money in existence and available for business. 

443. The Multiple Standard.— In order to avoid the 
injury done by such fluctuations in the value of money 
it has been proposed to establish, instead of either the 
single standard or double standard, what is called 
the multiple standard. This proposal is that the aver- 
age price of a large number of articles in the market 
shall be depended on to fix the volume of money, and 
that the government shall issue as much money, or have 
authority to retire at any time, as much money as may 
be necessary to maintain this standard of average 
prices. If the price of a single article varies there 
may be some reason relating to the methods of its pro- 
duction or to the nature of the season, or to the de- 
mand for its use, to account for the change, but if the 
average price of a large number of the articles most 
in use varies in a free market, this can be accounted for 
only by too much or too little money. In this way it 
has been thought that a sufficient basis could be found 
for the effective guidance of congress in their re- 
sponsible control of the volume of money.^ 

infinite complexities, giving extent and importance to financial enter- 
prise. 

"It would be marvelous if those who became initiated into all 
the mysteries of financial manipulation did not learn with the rest how 
to absorb a large amount of these various representations of value. No 
field of speculation offers such temptations, and, while a lack of tact 
and cunning is sure to be attended with ruin, the successful are loaded 
with wealth. Such a field is never without its organized monopolists, 
who do nothing but watch their chances to sweep down upon the fruits 
of human toil and with a stroke of the pen brush into their money 
drawers the patient labor of years. Though a somewhat hazardous one, 
speculation in paper obligations is an extensive business, a successful 
mode of acquisition, and a dangerous monopoly." — Ward: Dynamic So- 
ciology, Vol. I., pp. 592-3. 

8. "It appears to be a natural law that when social development 
has reached a certain stage, and capital has accumulated sufficiently, 



Chap. XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION 345 

It is evident that under such an arrangement the 
relation of the volume of money to average prices could 
be controlled; but it is equally evident that the average 
prices themselves could be seriously affected by the 
action of the trusts which control so large a number of 
the leading articles of the market. 

444. Summary.— Part I.— No Solution Under Cap- 
italism.— It is contended, then, that under capitalism 
there is no possible solution of the money question, and 
this for the following reasons:^ 

1. A national paper currency would be absolutely 
arbitrary in its relation to exchange and would de- 
pend on congress to fix its volume, and hence its value, 
without any possible means of otherwise maintaining 
a stability of average prices. An act df congress 
changing the volume of money, at any time, would 
chang'e average prices. Every variation in average 
prices is an injury to someone. 

2. The cost of producing gold and silver, either 
or both of them, varies from time to time and the vol- 
ume of gold and silver as related to the volume of busi- 
ness is constantly changing, and each such change af- 
fects average prices. Every variation in average prices 
in an injury to someone. 

3. The hoarding of gold changes the volume of 
money as related to the volume of business, to the bene- 
fit of the creditors, just as the coming of new gold 
from the gold fields tends to the debtors ' relief. There 
is no way by which the volume of the new gold can be 
fixed. It depends on the fortjme of the mines. There 

the class which has had the capacity to absorb it shall try to enhance 
the value of their property by legislation." — ^Adams: Law of Civiliza- 
tion and Decay, p. 29. 

9. "The pursuit of an ideal money which is unchangeable in its 
relations to other things is as idle as the search for the philosopher's 
stone, or the attempt to find a fixed point in the solar system." — 
Charles A. Conant, in Journal of Political Economy, June, 1903, p. 414. 



346 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

is no way by which to prevent the hoarding of gold, 
both new and old. It depends at one time on the fears 
and at another time on the rascality of those who have 
it. Every change in the volume of money as related to 
the volume of business affects average prices. Every 
variation in average prices is an injury to someone. i 

4. Bank currency, authorized by law, whether se- 
cured by national bonds or any other kind of assets, 
simply places the business of the country in the hands 
and at the mercy of a private corporation. The man- 
agement of such a corporation would have to be more 
thoroughly disinterested than any like group of men 
the world has yet known or they would use their power 
to manipulate the volume of money expressly for the 
purpose of affecting average prices. Every change in 
average prices which would thus be brought about 
would be to the injury of the industrial world for the 
further profit of its money masters. 

5. The multiple standard would be no solution of 
the money question. The theory is mathematically 
faultless. It depends for its effectiveness upon an aver- 
age of prices created and continued, in a free market, 
by dealers engaged in an effective competition with 
each other. There is no such market, and unless human 
life is to be simply a horse race, managed solely to see 
which one can get ahead of all the rest, no such mar- 
ket is to be desired. Under the market as it is and as 
it is likely to remain, even with the multiple standard 
in force, if that were possible, the prices of trust-con- 
trolled articles could be continuously changed, arbi- 
trarily and without reason. Every such change would 
affect the average of prices, and under the multiple 
standard the volume of money, and so again the prices 
of articles not in the trust would fluctuate by the action 
of the trust and the power of the trust not only to arbi- 
trarily advance its own prices, but, through controlling 



Chap. XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION 347 

the money, disastrously to affect the prices of articles 
of trade not otherwise subject to trust control, and 
hence, would defeat the purposes of the multiple stand- 
ard. 

And, therefore, there is no solution of the money ques- 
tion under capitalism which does not leave the power 
of money in the hands of those who gamble with loaded 
dice and whose stakes involve the welfare of the world. 

445. Summary.— Part II.— Socialism Will End the 
Controversy.— On the other hand it is contended that 
Socialism will abolish exchange for profits and will 
dispose of the use of money of intrinsic value and sub- 
ject to private manipulation as an essential in ex- 
change, and so make an end of the money question by 
providing a way by which each may exchange his own 
labor power for the products of all others, practically 
on a basis of exact and equal justice to all, and this for 
the following reasons : 

1. Under capitalism one's ability to get things out 
of the market depends on his possession of money, 
which is always an uncertain and imperfect record of 
someone, somewhere, some time, having put something 
into some market. Under Socialism the record on 
which one will depend for his power to draw things 
from the public stores will be definite and certain. It 
has been seen that the real thing exchanged is labor 
power, and under Socialism the record of labor power 
expended will be direct, simple and certain. No one 
can predict what the details of the distribution of the 
future will be, but it does not matter whether labor 
certificates, pass books, or whatever the device may be 
by which the credits for labor will be made available 
for daily use. The money now in existence could be so 
used. But whatever is used the certificates or the dol- 
lars will come into circulation because of the perform- 
ance of labor; they will go out of circulation by being 



348 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

surrendered for goods to be used. They will make a 
record of production in one instance and of consump- 
tion in the other. Their volume will depend on the 
labor performed, and the extent of their claims will 
always be limited by the goods actually in store. These 
goods can be obtained only on account of labor per- 
formed, or because of childhood or old age or disabil- 
ity, so that the receiver of them will always be an im- 
mediate producer or a social charge, and not a social 
parasite. 

2. As the total labor of all will be the sole claim- 
ant against all of the products of all of the workers, 
the only measure of value, that is of power in the mar- 
ket, will be labor itself. If things have any power to 
exchange themselves for other things, it would neces- 
sarily be at the cost in labor of producing the other 
things, for when the cost in labor could procure the 
other things by surrendering certificates of labor for 
them, none would exchange their goods at any other 
rate than the general average of the labor cost of pro- 
ducing them. The only power over the things in the 
market would be the labor which put them there. Then, 
as now, only the expenditure of human life can put 
things into the market. Then, but not as now, only 
those who put some share of their lives into filling the 
market could have any share in emptying it. Only 
those who gave something of life in the creation of 
goods could secure something of life in the form of 
goods. 

3. Under Socialism there will be no need of loans 
for the purchase of productive plants. They will be 
owned in abundance by society for the free use of the 
whole body of its workers. There will be no need of 
loans for the purchase of goods for private stores. 
There will be no demand for private stores. There will 
be no occasion for personal loans. The able-bodied 



Chap. XXVI THE MONEY QUESTION 31S 

will always have employment and the disabled will al- 
ways be provided for. The whole credit system of cap- 
italism will go at once on the coming of Socialism. As 
there will be no deferred payments, no standard for the 
settlement of deferred payments will be necessary. 

4. The only thing which can in any way compare 
with our credit system will be found in the fact that the 
credits of the workers will accumulate from day to 
day, but while society stores the goods which will be 
produced by the labor which earns these credits it will 
not be a borrower of them, and when these workers come 
to the public stores to exchange these credits for the 
articles of their choice, it will not be to make a pur- 
chase, in the present sense of that term, but simply to 
withdraw from storage, values which are already theirs. 
To purchase is to give one thing of value in exchange 
for another thing of value. Under Socialism whatever 
forms of credit a worker may have will simply certify 
to his share of the goods in store. He will not go there 
to purchase what belongs to another. He will go to 
withdraw what is already his own. 

5. So it is seen that under Socialism neither the 
votes of congress, nor the fortunes of mines, nor pri- 
vate hoarding, nor a trust-ruled market can, through 
the power of money, disastrously affect the process by 
which the products of all, which embody something of 
the expended life of all, shall always be within the 
reach of all. Banks, banking, loans, discounts, bonds, 
contracts, the breach of contracts, brokers, promoters, 
mortgages, foreclosures, evictions, embezzlements, 
bankruptcies, bulls, bears and corners will all go to 
the economic junk heap along with horse cars, stage 
coaches, flint-lock muskets and the rest of the outgrown 
equipment of a growing world.^^ 

10. "The civilized governments of the present day are resting under 
a burden of indebtedness computed at $27,000,000,000. This sum, which 



350 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVEKSY Part IV 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. According to the economists, what are the functions of money? 

2. What was the origin of money ? Name some of the things which, 
have been used as money. 

3. What qualities ought any article to possess if it is to be used 
as money? Why did silver and gold finally come to be the money 
metals ? 

4. What is meant by a medium of exchange? Why is such a 
medium necessary? 

5. What is meant by a measure of value ? How can money be used 
to measure the value of any given article? 

6. What is meant by value — use value and price as used by the 
economists ? 

7. What is the one thing which all things have in common as re- 
lated to the power which they have to exchange for each other in the 
market ? 

8. How can the value of money be determined? 

9. What is meant by a standard for the settlement of deferred pay- 
ments ? 

10. Explain why a change in the value of money must injure either 
the creditor or the debtor. Why are the debtors and creditors always 
on opposite sides in all disputes which involve the value of money? 

11. Give the general law of supply and demand as related to money. 
What about the proposal for paper money? What are the possibilities 
of its abuse? Could congress use its power to control the volume of 
money, made on paper, to the injury of the debtors? 

12. Explain the multiple standard. 

13. Prove that there is no solution for the money question under 
the wage system, mentioning paper money, gold, bank notes and the 
multiple standard. 

14. Prove that Socialism would dispose of the money question, 
mentioning the medium of exchange, the measure of value and the 
standard for the settlement of deferred payments under Socialism. 

does not include local obligations of any sort, constitutes a mortgage of 
$722 upon each square mile of territory over which the burdened gov- 
ernments extend their jurisdiction, and shows a per capita indebtedness 
of $23 upon their subjects. The total amount of national obligations 
is equal to seven times the aggregate annual revenue of the indebted 
states. At the liberal estimate of $1.50 per day, the payment of accru- 
ing interest, computed at 5 per cent, would demand the continuous labor 
of three millions of men. Should the people of the United States con- 
tract to pay the principal of the world's debt, their engagement would 
call for the appropriation of a sum equal to the total gross product of 
their industry for three years; or, if annual profits alone were devoted 
to this purpose, they would be enslaved by their contract for the greater 
part of a generation. 

"But it is not alone the magnitude of this constant drain upon the 
product of current industry that invites our attention to a study of pub- 
lic debts; their recent appearance suggests many questions of equal 
importance. Previous to the present century, England and Holland 
were the only countries that had learned by experience the weight of 
national obligations; but at the present time the phenomenon of public 
debts is almost universal, and there are many peoples that rival Eng- 
land in the taxes paid for their support." — Adams: Public Debts, pp. 3-4. 



CHAPTER XXVn 

THEORIES OF POPULATION 

446. The Law of Increase.— The whole number of 
the children all the time exceeds the whole number of 
the parents, and so in each generation the population 
continues to multiply.^ Plants and animals of all kinds 
are sprouted or are begotten in such numbers that if 
all which make a beginning in life were to continue to 
live and to bring forth after their kind, it would very 
soon occur that the world could not contain them. The 
reason why this does not happen is because the animals 
are not permitted by each other or by exposure or acci- 
dent to so come to maturity and bring forth each ' ' after 
its own kind." But if any particular animal should 
be given the exclusive occupancy of the whole earth, 
though it were the slowest breeder known, it alone in 
the course of time would so cover the earth's surface 
that there would be the same struggle for the chance 
for some portion of them to live by the destruction 
of the rest.^ 

447. The Struggle to Exist.— All animals, including 
man, so say the capitalists, struggle for existence, and 

1. Darwin: Descent of Man, p. 62. 

2. Darwin: Descent of Man, p. 62. 

351 



352 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

must do SO whether they like it or not, and they further 
say that to refuse to struggle for the survival of 
a part is, as a final result, to encounter starvation as 
the end of all. Thus the capitalists make man's strug- 
gle for existence not only, nor mainly, a struggle with 
hunger and exposure and the other conditions and 
forces of nature, but also, and mainly, and necessarily, 
a struggle between man and man for an opportunity to 
get a chance to struggle with the forces of nature. 

Moreover, it is explained that war, pestilence, fam- 
ine, hunger, disease, poverty, the distress of the chil- 
dren of the poor, the countless burials of infancy, are 
only in the line of the common lot of all life, and that 
while it does make hard the lot of the many, it is the 
only means of exterminating such a portion of the race 
that the remainder may survive.^ 

448. Limited Powers of Production.— On the other 
hand, on any given tract of land, a given amount of 
labor being expended with the result of a given pro- 
duct, it may be said that if the amount of labor in- 
creased the amount of the product would also increase. 
It is evident, however, that the natural limit to the 
productive powers of the soil would establish a point 
beyond which the further employment of labor would 
not so increase the product as to reward the larger 
amount of labor at the same or a higher rate than 
was secured by the smaller amount of labor. 

449. ''Increasing" and "Diminishing Returns." — 
If a given tract of land with one hundred days of labor 
should produce one thousand bushels of any given 
grain, it might be that with a hundred and fifty days 
of labor it would produce two thousand bushels. In 
this case the one hundred days were rewarded with ten 
bushels for each day of labor. But the one hundred 
and fifty days were rewarded with thirteen and a third 

3. Walker: Political Economy, pp. 308-309. 



Chap. XXVII THEORIES OF POPULATION 353 

bushels for each day of labor. Now if the labor were 
increased to two hundred days and the product were 
increased to only two thousand one hundred bushels, 
then the rate of reward for each day of labor would 
fall to ten and a half bushels ; that is, the total harvest 
would be increased, but the rate of reward for each day's 
labor would be diminished. 

^^Land may be undercultivated and then extra cap- 
ital and labor will give an increasing return' until a 
maximum rate has been reached, after which it will 
diminish again. "^ 

That is, it is seen that here are two important eco- 
nomic laws: First, the law of ^'increasing" returns 
according to which, up to a certain point, the rate of 
reward of labor upon any given tract of land increases 
when additional applications of labor are made; sec- 
ond, the law of '^ diminishing returns," in accordance 
with which, beyond a certain point, the rate of reward 
from a given tract of land decreases when additional 
labor is applied. 

It is evident that with additional land, as well as 
labor, the reward for the additional labor is not only 
as great as in the smaller undertakings but that the 
same increased advantages result from large combina- 
tions of machinery, organization, and scientific meth- 
ods of production in agriculture as in every other field 
of endeavor. 

This position has been recently disputed as applied 
to agriculture. That is, it is claimed that the benefits 
of organization as applied to larger enterprises cannot 
hold in the case of agriculture. But the most recent 
development in connection with the great farms about 
which this controversy has been carried on is that in 
the great wheat fields of the Sacramento Valley farm- 

4. Marshall: Principles of Economics, p. 227. 



354 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

ers are combining their thousand-acre farms into larger 
tracts for cultivation, maintaining private ownership 
to the various sections of these larger tracts, but com- 
bining in order that they may have the advantage of 
the great machinery as applied to agriculture, which 
machinery has been greatly enlarged in the last half 
dozen years. So that in agriculture, as in other lines 
of production, machinery, organization and scientific 
methods of production with increased land and in- 
creased labor, and under a single management, in- 
volves ''increasing" and not ''diminishing returns." 

In manufactures there is no such thing as a dimin- 
ishing reward for additional days of labor, but the re- 
verse is true. The larger the enterprise, the larger the 
product for each day of labor so employed. If it were 
making cloth instead of raising grain, and a given ap- 
plication of labor had produced one thousand yards, 
t6n times the labor would not only produce ten times 
as many yards, but more than ten times as many yards. 
The law is, one of "increasing" rather than "diminish- 
ing returns." 

Of course this would not hold if production were 
attempted in excess of the supply of raw material, for 
in manufactures as well as in agriculture the ultimate 
dependence is on the earth itself. In both agriculture 
and manufactures, the law is. one of "increasing re- 
turns" for each additional day of labor so far as af- 
fected by the organization and equipment of labor. In 
neither agriculture nor manufactures can a single 
small tract of land be depended on to provide the na- 
tural resources for the sustenance of all the earth. But 
in agriculture the fact that additional labor cannot be 
employed to the same advantage on the same acres of 
land is of no consequence so long as there are addi-» 
tional acres. And in manufactures, the fact that when 
the raw materials of the earth have been exhausted for 



Chap. XXVII THEORIES OF POPULATION 355 

any given year, that the manufacture would thereafter 
be impossible, and the fact that as the consumption of 
raw materials approaches the limit of supply, pro- 
duction would decrease in the volume of products as 
compared to the amount of labor, are of no conse- 
quence, so long as raw materials are abundant. 

450. When the Last Acre Is in Use.— For the last 
hundred years there has been an enormous increase 
in the population of the earth, but the increase in pro- 
duction has been many times faster than the increase 
of population. But the increase of production has in- 
volved an increase of the number of acres of land in 
use. That cannot go on forever. The limit of the new 
available soil is even now in sight. There are new con- 
tinents to bring into complete use, but there are no 
more new continents to discover. Will the popula- 
tion some day bring into use the last available acre of 
land and then the population continue to multiply, and 
so exceed the power of the earth each year to provide 
food and the raw materials for the support of the 
people? 

451. In the Year of 2400.— On this point Professor 
Alfred Marshall says :^ ' ' Taking the present population 
of the world at one and a half thousand millions; and 
assuming that its present rate of increase (about 8 per 
thousand annually; see Eavenstein's paper before the 
British Association in 1890) will continue, we find that 
in less than two hundred years it will amount to six 
thousand millions; or at the rate of about 200 to the 
square mile of fairly fertile land (Ravenstein reckons 
28 million square miles of fairly fertile land, and 14 
millions of poor grass lands. The first estimate is 
thought by many to be too high ; but allowing for this, 
if the less fertile land be reckoned in for what it is 

t. Marsnall: Principles of Economics, p. 257. 



356 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

wortli, the result will be about thirty million square 
miles as assumed above). Meanwhile there will prob- 
ably be great improvements in the arts of agriculture; 
and, if so, the pressure of population on the means of 
subsistence may not be much felt even in two hundred 
years. But if the same rate of increase be continued 
till the year 2400, the population will then be 1,000 for 
every mile of fairly fertile land, and, so far as we can 
see now, the diet of such a population must needs be 
in the main vegetarian. ^ ' 

452. The Gloomiest Page in Economics.— Here is 
the gloomiest page in political economy, for the capital- 
istic economists assure us that this very thing is to 
happen in the natural order of things, and on this as- 
surance have been based the most brutal proposals ever 
offered to mankind.^ 

Here is the question which we are considering: Is 
such a crisis likely to occur? If so, would capitalism 
or Socialism be better able to longest postpone its 
coming and be better able to deal with such a situation 
when it could no longer be averted? 

453. An Old Problem.— It is admitted, then, that 
there is a natural and necessary limit to the productive 
powers of the soil, and that there is no such natural 
and necessary limit to the capacity for increasing the 
numbers of the people. This is an old problem debated 
by Plato and Aristotle. Laws for limiting or increas- 
ing the population have been frequently enacted by 
both ancient and modern nations. Wars have been fol- 
lowed with the offering of premiums for large families, 
and restrictions as to marriage have been suggested, if 
not enforced, when overpopulation has been threat- 
ened. In the lower stages of society ^^the ruthless 
slaughter of the infirm and aged, and sometimes of a 

6. Walker: Political Economj^^ Book III., Chapters I. and II. 



Chap. XXVII THEORIES OF POPULATION 357 

certain proportion of the female children, has been re- 
sorted to in order to limit the population. ' ^'^ 

454. Absurd Proposals to Limit Population.— Those 
who have believed the final over-population of the 
world to be probable have made the following sugges- 
tions regarding the best way to keep the population 
within the limit of subsistence: 

(1) It has been suggested by them to forbid the 
marriage of the poor.^ 

(2) John Stuart Mill proposed to so train the poor 
in the necessity of making the population scarce, 
in order to make wages high, as to induce such an inter- 
est in self-control on the part of the married poor as 
to limit the size of the poor man's family.^ 

(3) Annie Besant some years ago inaugurated a 
campaign in England for the purpose of so enlighten- 
ing women regarding the physical operation of the 
child-bearing functions as to enable the -mothers to pre- 
v^ent the conception of undesired children. Her cam- 
paign was denounced as wicked and indecent, and per- 
sons were imprisoned in this country for circulating 
books on this subject. But the capitalist saviors of so- 
ciety were placed in the awkward position of contend- 
ing in one breath that so many were born that some 
must starve, and in the next punishing as an offense the 
only serious and outright effort to prevent the coming 
of more than could be provided for, as if to prevent the 
coming was a crime, while to insist on their coming 
into conditions where all must suffer and many starve 
was a civic virtue. 

455. A Knowledge of Natural Causes.— Those who 

7. Marshall: Principles of Economics, Book IV., Chapter IV., p. 
251. 

8. "The real labor problem is to be found ***** jn the 
discovery of the means by which the lowest classes can be restrained in 
numbers." — ^Laughlin, Head Professor of Economics, University of Chi- 
cago: Political Economy, p. 347. 

9. Mill: Political Economy, p. 347. 



358 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

have denied the probability of the coming of such a 
crisis in the world ^s life as would result in the popula- 
tion having outgrown the possible means of subsist- 
ence have done so on the following grounds: 

(1) They have pointed out the undisputed fact 
that while the new-born among animals are largely in 
excess of the number which come to maturity^ it is also 
true that this excess of births as related to the number 
which mature constantly decreases as the grade of life 
advances towards man.^^ 

(2) Among all animals, including men, as the grade 
of any individual animal approaches perfection of its 
kind, the tendency to reproduce correspondingly de- 
creases.^^ 

(3) Whenever an animal is most poorly fed or most 
injuriously exposed, that is, as anxiety for its own ex- 
istence increases, the action of the reproductive forces 
is correspondingly quickened.^^ 

(4) A very large percentage of the children born 
are a result of the ignorance of the parents regarding 
their own reproductive functions, and ignorance re- 
garding so important a matfer cannot always be count- 
ed on to overcrowd the world with children not desired 
by the very people who are responsible for their com- 
ing.^^ 

456. Over-Population Unnecessary.— And, there- 
fore, it is contended that (1) if the people were enlight- 
ened so that the undesired child need not come; (2) if 
they were more fully developed both physically and 
mentally, so that the tendency toward a slower repro- 
duction on the part of a more perfectly developed man 
might be realized for all and (3) if poverty, distress, 
exposure, and the fear of these were taken out of the 

10. Ferri: Socialism and Modern Science, pp. 35-37. 

11. Ferii: Socialism and Modern Science, pp. 35-37. 

12. Walker: Political Economy, p. 310. 

13. Walker: Political Economy, p. 317. 



Chap. XXVII THEORIES OF POPULATION 359 

problem of life, so that conceptions resulting from the 
lack of the proper physical condition of comfort for 
the mothers might cease, then it is claimed there would 
be no ground to fear that population would ever ex- 
ceed the limit of subsistence. 

457. Safe Conditions Impossible Under Capitalism. 
—Let it be admitted for the sake of argument that so- 
ciety is sure to reach at some time in the future a con- 
dition under which the population will approach the 
uttermost limit of subsistence. If so, capitalism will 
be entirely incapable of solving the problem of the 
means of support, and this is held for the following 
reasons : 

458. Forbidding the Poor to Marry.— (1) To for- 
bid the marriage of the poor will not avail. The sex 
relation is one so natural and so vital to the character 
and welfare of man that laws forbidding wedlock have 
never been, never ought to be, and never can be made 
effective in preventing the union of those forbidden to 
marry. 

Christian missionaries in countries of different re- 
ligions and their converts who are forbidden to marry, 
except under conditions to which they are unwilling 
to assent, cohabit together and maintain all the rela- 
tions of the family life without marriage, according 
to the laws of those countries. The marriages are 
celebrated in keeping with the usages of the countries 
from which the missionaries have come, but regardless 
of the laws of the countries where they reside. It 
would be absurd to expect poor people under similar 
conditions to act in any other manner. If the poor 
should cohabit in spite of such a law they would be 
worthily following the example of worthy people who 
are right in contending that no law can be binding 
which forbids a relationship so natural to man and so 
necessary to the fulfillment of the purpose and meaning 



360 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

of his existence. It might be further said that the fu- 
ture character of the race would be better served by 
cutting off from the bearing of offspring those most, 
subject to the diseases and vices of the rich, rather 
than the sturdy, though helpless poor.^^ 

459. Genius and the Poor.— (2) The successful en- 
forcement of a law forbidding the marriage of the poor 
in the past would have robbed the world of a great ma- 
jority of its most useful people. Moses in religion, 
Michael Angelo in art, Edison in science, Shakespeare 
in literature, Hamilton, Webster and Lincoln in Ameri- 
can politics^ are only examples of the limitless list of 
strong men who have been given to the world by the 
families of the poor. A solution of the problem of pop- 
ulation which would rob the world of so large a propor- 
tion of its genius would only add to the misfortune 
of the situation rather than solve the problem. 

460. Giving the World to the Backward Races.— (3) 
The enlightenment of self-control proposed by Mr. Mill 
must be made universal in order to be made effect- 
ive. If not made universal the result would be to limit 
the number of the most advanced peoples and to give 
the earth to the most ignorant and backward races. 
But such an enlightenment and such self-control can 

14. "Another group of persons who have no calling is formed at 
the upper fringe of society. I mean the professional idlers who live on 
their interest and absolve themselves of the duty of having a calling. 
Looked at from the outside, their manner of life differs from that of the 
other class; seen from within, however, it shows many points of re- 
semblance. Besides, these two classes come into personal contact with 
each other; they meet in the demi monde and among the gambling fra- 
ternity. Both congregate in large cities, both have perfectly perverse 
notions of honor, both, above all, are restless in disposition and unsettled 
in their movements. Just as a ship without a cargo is aimlessly tossed 
about by the wind and the waves, so the life of the rich idler is the play- 
thing of every whim or mood that happens to strike him." * * * * 
— Paulson: A System of Ethics, pp. 530-31. 

"The more a man leads an intellectual life, the less powerful does 
the animal nature become in him. The majority of great men have 
left no posterity. 

"The progress of enlightenment and comfort is therefore the best 
antidote against a too great increase of population, and by a kind of 



J 



Chap. XXVII THEORIES OF POPULATION 361 

Qever be secured for any large number of working peo- 
ple anywhere with the mass» of men doomed to the ex- 
hausting toil and the wasting poverty which is inevit- 
able under capitalism. 

461. Capitalism Unable to Use the Earth.— (4) 
Under capitalism the earth's resources can never be cul- 
tivated to the utmost limit and the products made 
available for the support of all the living. No worker 
can buy in excess of the purchasing power of his wages. 
No employer can pay wages unless he can sell the prod- 
ucts of labor for more than he pays in wages. Only 
that share of the product of the labor of the people 
which can be bought with the wages paid them can be 
made available for their support, and this must always 
be less than the whole product under capitalism. Hence, 
it is clear that the whole power of the earth's ability 
to support the people can never be made available un- 
der capitalism. 

But this is not all. Capitalism does not wait to reach 
the limit of the world's resources before it cuts off the 
poor man's support. Because the produce of labor is 
always in excess of the purchasing power of the wages 
of labor, the market, mainly supported by the wages 

social harmony the advance of civilization dispels the principal danger 
that threatens its future." — Laveleye: Socialism of To-day, p. 13. 

"Nature left to herself tends to weed out the weak, but man has 
interfered. And there are yet other causes 1 t anxiety. For there 
is some partial arrert of that selective influence of struggle and compe- 
tition which in the earlier stages of civilization caused those who 
were strongest and most vigorous to leave the largest progeny behind 
them; and to which, more than any other single cause, the progress of 
the human race is due. In the later stages of civilization the riile has 
indeed long been that the upper class marry late, and in consequence 
have fewer children than the working classes; but this has been com- 
pensated for by the fact that among the working classes themselves 
the old rule has held; and the vigor of the nation that is tending to be 
stamped out among the upper classes is thus replenished by the fresh 
stream of strength that is constantly welling up from below. But in 
France for a long time, and recently in America and England, some of 
the abler and more intelligent of the working class population have 
shown signs of a disinclination to have large families; and this is a 
source of danger." — Marshall: Principles of Economics, p. 280. 



362 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

of labor, must fail to take the total prodiict under such 
a system. The articles which support life are the great 
staples of production. The workers can only buy what 
their wages will pay for. They could use the remain- 
der, but they cannot buy it. The capitalists could buy 
the remainder. In fact they already have it, but they 
cannot use so much of the staple articles. If they can 
not continue to sell the products of labor they cannot 
continue to employ labor to produce, and so even now, 
with almost whole continents of untaken land, capital- 
ism cuts off the worker from the means of producing 
the means of life by a failure or a lock-out whenever 
the market fails, as surely as if the limit of the world 's 
resources were already reached. If capitalism cannot 
provide for the support of all now, it is certain that it 
cannot do so when all the earth is everywhere occupied 
by productive workers, and no one but the workers to 
provide a market. 

462. Unable to Develop Its Resources.— (5) The 
preservation of the forests, the irrigation and develop- 
ment of fertile but arid soils, the construction of great 
canals, the building of dykes and levees and the saving 
of the waste from the great cities which the sewers 
turn into the seas, which constantly exhausts the nat- 
ural productive powers of the soil, and all enterprises 
which require great outlay and long spaces of time for 
their full completion,— these things, capitalism, de- 
pending for its motive for action on profit, cannot and 
does not undertake. But the full use of the world 's pro- 
ductive powers requires this saving of what capitalism 
cannot save, and the development of that which capital- 
ism cannot develop. 

463. Pestilence and Famine No Relief.— (6) War, 
pestilence, disease and exposure, on which the capitalist 
depends to limit the population, cannot do it under 
capitalism, for while capitalism can cause all these in 
abundance, they are always followed by a more rapid 
birth rate than preceded their coming. Sparsely set- 



Chap. XXVII THEORIES OF POPULATION 363 

tied countries have larger families than those which 
are overcrowded. Such loss of life only reacts with 
the return of increased numbers. Its only effect is to 
break the incoming tide into an ebb and flow of many 
waves. But it does not stay the tide itself. Famine 
never relieved the .stress of population in Ireland. 
There were never so many children born there as dur- 
ing and following her greatest famine. 

464. Socialism and the Causes of Over-Population. 
—On the other hand Socialism will meet in the best pos- 
sible manner every possible phase of the problem of an 
increasing population with an approaching limit of 
the means of support. 

465. Maternal Distress.— (1) Under Socialism all 
will be secure in the opportunity to obtain a comfort- 
able living, and the unnatural increase of the popula- 
tion resulting from maternal distress, caused by pov- 
erty, will cease. 

466. Overwork and Mental Neglect.— (2) Under 
Socialism the shortened day of labor will give time for 
the physical and mental development and mental activ- 
ity of all the people, and so the unnatural increase of 
the poorly developed because of overwork and mental 
neglect will cease. 

467. Self-ControL— (3) Under Socialism, the leis- 
ure and the opportunity for all to study will make more 
nearly possible the general intelligence and special 
knowledge and self-control which will greatly decrease 
the number of undesired births. 

468. Can Use the Earth.— (4) Under International 
Socialism the resources of the whole earth can be de- 
veloped to the fullest possible capacity, with the best 
possible equipment and under scientific methods, and 
all the product will be available for the support of all 
the people, because all will be producers and all will 
draw from the common stores the total product of their 



364 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Pabt IV 

toil. Neither a failure, nor a strike, nor a lockout will 
be possible under Socialism. 

469.--Make the Desert Blossom.— (5) Under Inter- 
national Socialism the paternal instinct of the race will 
make a garden of the whole world, and neither the cost 
of labor nor the lapse of time required will inter- 
fere to prevent making the desert to blossom and many 
of the great waste places to be forever fresh and green 
with their unfailing wealth. There will be no limit to 
improvement placed by the impossible sale of an ever- 
recurring surplus which the laborer can produce, but 
which his wages cannot buy. 

470. The Unwelcome Child.- (6) But should the 
improbable occur and the increase of the population un- 
der normal conditions finally outrun the boundless pos- 
sibilities of co-operative production, then society could 
deal with the question of limiting the population under 
no form of social or economic organization so well 
as under Socialism, where equality of opportunity, with 
democratic authority, and these only, could enforce the 
necessary limitations by intelligent, just, scientific and 
merciful measures for preventing over-population, 
rather than as capitalism proposes, insist on the unde- 
sired birth, only to starve and kill the unwelcomed 
child. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What is the doctrine of diminishing returns? 

2. What is the theory of the economists regarding the increase of 
population ? 

3. Give grounds for holding that population will some time exceed 
the earth's ability to supply the means of support. 

4. Give grounds for holding that this does not need to occur. 

5. What measures have been offered under capitalism as a means 
of preventing over-production? (a) As to marriage? (b) The sugges- 
tion of Mill? (c) The crusade of Annie Besant? 

6. Under Avhat conditions is it believed by those who deny the ne- 
cessity of over-population, can over-population be prevented? 

7. Why cannot capitalism deal with this problem? (a) Show how 
the forbidden, marriage, the suggestion of Mill, or war, pestilence and 
famine cannot be relied on to limit the population, (b) Show that 
capitalism cannot use to the full limit the earth's resources for the sup- 
port of the people. 

8. Why will Socialism be able to solve this problem? (a) As re- 
lated to comfort? (b) As related to the more perfect life of the people? 
(e) As related to the full use of the earth's resources, and (d) as re- 
lated to the direct action of limiting the population? 



CHAPTEE XXVIII 

RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT 

47L The Joint Producers?— According to the cap- 
italists, wealth is produced by the joint efforts of the 
landlord, the capitalist, the managing producer, and 
the laborer. 

472. The Landlord. —The landlord contributes his 
share in the production by furnishing the land or stand- 
ing room for the producer, and has his share of the 
products in rent. 

473. The Capitalist.— The capitalist contributes his 
share in the production by furnishing the buildings, 
the raw materials, machinery, and the advance wages, 
—that is, wages while the first batch of products is be- 
ing turned out and the management is waiting for re- 
turns. He may furnish these directly, or he may fur- 
nish the money or credit with which to obtain them, 
and he has his share of the products in payments of 
interest. 

474. The Manager.— The managing producer, in 
order to contribute his share in production, must orig- 
inate the enterprise, must control it, must find a pay- 
ing market for the products, must carry all the risks 

365 



366 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

of the enterprise, and he has his share of the products 
in profit. 

475. The Laborer.— The laborer contributes his 
share under the direction of the managing producer, 
with the materials and machinery of the capitalist, and 
on the standing-room of the landlord, by actually creat- 
ing the wealth with his own toil, and he has his share 
of the products in wages. 

476. The Division of Products,— The wages of the 
laborer, the interest of the capitalist and the rent of 
the landlord are fixed in amount and are guaranteed 
by the managing producer, but the amount of his share 
is not fixed and must depend on all the contingencies 
of business, as well as on his own ability. His share 
of the products is all that is left after all the others 
are rewarded. 

This statement of the parties to production and 
of the shares falling to each is not disputed. It is sim- 
ply a statement of what is of daily occurrence under 
the wage system. That these are necessary parties 
to production or that the shares ought to be so fixed, 
holds only on the assumption that the wage system is 
a just or necessary method of production. It will be 
shown further on that it is neither just nor necessary, 
but it will nevertheless be of interest and of advantage 
to be familiar with the exposition and defense made 
by the economists, of rent^ interest and profit, for these 
are the several forms in which the products of labor, 
over and above the share paid in wages, are taken from 
the laborers. 

477. What Is Rent?— Let us consider, then, the 
grounds on which the capitalist maintains that the 
workers should share their products with others, be- 
cause the others have the legal title to the earth. 

They teach that the rent of any given tract of land 
in arty particular region is the difference between the 



Chap. XXVIII RENT, INTEREST ANT) PROFIT 367 

productivity of that particular piece of land and the 
productivity of the least desirable like tract of land in 
actual use in that same region. 

They argue that the labor employed on lands which 
are so poor that they can pay no rent, just pays for 
the capital, labor and management, or it would not be 
used. If, then, an amount equal to the value of the 
products of the poor land be deducted from the returns 
from the most desirable locations, the remainder of the 
product, being a surplus over and above the pay for 
capital, labor and management, would be the rent.^ 

478.— The Single Tax.— It is the contention of the 
advocates of the single tax that this sum belongs to 
society and ought to be collected from the legal owners 
of the land in the form of a tax and so be devoted to 
the public use. It is difficult to over-estimate the value 
of this agitation of the late Henry George and his fol- 
lowers in calling the general public attention to this 
fact, namely, that there is no pretense whatever that 
the sums paid in rent for land values, exclusive of im- 
provements, represent any service whatever from the 
landlords to society, but are simply the appropriation 
by the landlords of values which have been created 
by the whole body of the community— for it is the com- 
munity which most of all determines which location 
is the most and which the least desirable. The single 
taxers as well as the Socialists have compelled the econ- 
omists to face this feature of the wage system. 

479. Fixed Improvements.— The economists who 
have spoken for capitalism have attempted to defend 
rent by the claim that the improvements really create 
the value of the land and that the land ought to belong 
to those who create its value.^ 

The answer has been made that vacant and unim- 

A ■■ , . . ■— 

1. Ely: Political Economy, p. 215; and WalkfeiT: PoTitioa.-l Econ- 
omy, p. 203. 

2. Ely; Political Economy, p. 216. 



368 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

proved land in the midst of a growing community 
grows in value with the rest ; that the people whose im- 
provements create this value are the whole com- 
munity; that the improvements on any particular piece 
of land are only a small share of the improvements 
which make its value, and that therefore the argument 
for the private ownership of land, and hence the private 
appropriation of rent on account of improvements, is 
in fact an argument for public ownership of land and 
hence the public appropriation of the rents. It is these 
publicly created values which are called ^ ' unearned in- 
crements, ' ' meaning that they are unearned by the pri- 
vate owner who gets them. They are not unearned by 
the public which creates them, but does not get them. 

480. Land Titles and Other Property.— Again, it is 
contended that the titles to the land are as good and 
as just as the claims to patents, copyrights or corpora- 
tion stocks, the values of every one of which are as de- 
pendent on society for their existence as are the land 
values.'^ 

As to patents, it is contended that it was society 
which did all the preliminary work which finally made 
the invention possible; it is society which grants and 
protects the patent, and it is society which furnishes 
the market without which the invention would be 
valueless. Of copyrights, it is also said that society 
created the language used, lives the life which is por- 
trayed, amused or instructed, and again provides the 
market without which the copyright would be value- 
less. 

The same thing can be said of corporation stocks of 
.every possible variety. The corporations themselves, 
as well as the machinery they use, are purely social 
products. Their tools, their methods and their mar- 
kets, are all the creations of society. The ^^ unearned 

3. Contention of Roswell G, Horr in Debate with Henry George. 



Chap.XXVIII R3CNT, INTEREST AND PROFIT 369 

increment ' ^ of land is no more a social product and mi- 
earned by those who hold the land than are the shops, 
store houses and railways social products and unearned 
by those who hold them. 

481. Socialists and Single Taxers.— Here the Social- 
ists and single taxers part company. The single taxer 
looks for a ground of difference between socially cre- 
ated values in land and socially created values in ma- 
chinery, but the Socialist, instead of abandoning or 
limiting the application of the principle that society 
ought to own what society creates, because it would 
logically lead to the collective ownership of the tools 
of production, admits and insists that this is true and 
asks that society shall proceed to take for its own use 
all of the means of production, so far as they are collect- 
ively used, for all are either the free gift of nature or 
the joint creation of society. 

482. Unearned Benefits.— It is doubted whether 
any of the representative economists really regard as 
of much force either of the foregoing arguments in 
defense of rent. John Stuart Mill admitted that rent 
belongs to society and organized an association called 
^ ' The Land Tenure Kef orm Association, ' ' to agitate for 
public ownership of land values. Francis A. "Walker 
says: ''The unqualified ownership of land * * * 
enables the land-owning class to reap a wholly un- 
earned benefit at the expense of the general com- 
munity. ' '^ 

483. Who Pays the Eent?-So it is admitted that 

4. Walker: Political Economy, p. 395. 

"If a man shall acquire property worth $10,000, and shall rent it so 
a'S to receive a net income of 8 per cent per annum, payable semi-annual- 
ly, and shall each half year invest the income in property which will 
yield him the same rate of income, at the end of fifty years his property 
will be worth $500,u00, instead of the $10,000 which he originally had— 
all without his doing a stroke of work! And this does not take into con- 
sideration any increase in the value of the property. The $490,000 has 
been earned by his tenants and paid him as rent. In a hundred years 
the amount would be almost incalculable. And in this manner have 



370 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

the landlord is getting wliat does not belong to him, 
and then it is argued by most economists that this is no 
concern^ of the public because the rent does not add 
to the market price of the products. They contend 
that no one with a good farm would sell his products 
cheaper because he grew them more cheaply than his 
neighbor on a poor farm. The market would be obliged 
to buy the potatoes from the poor land or there would 
not be potatoes enough to go round. The expensively 
produced potatoes would fix the market price for all 
potatoes, including those grown more cheaply, because 
on better land. Now, they say it can make no difference 
to the general public whether the difference between 
the cost of producing potatoes on good land or poor 
land goes to the landlord or to his tenant as returns for 
his labor in excess of those realized by his neighbor, for 
neither the landlord nor the tenant would give the dif- 
ference to the public.^ 

484. No Escape.— To all this there is no answer, if 
the economist is permitted to stay under cover of cap- 
italism. But the whole argument would become absurd 
if the workers should organize to raise their own pota^ 
toes, producing with the least labor possible all the 
potatoes that everybody would be likely to need. But 
it is just here where the wrong of the wage system is 
again made evident, in that it does provide, just as 

all great fortunes been accumulated. They are never earned. They 
could not be. No man could ever grow rich by the ordinary product of 
labor. 

"And there must be some reason for the growth of large fortunes 
which is not grounded in justice; for if they be not earned they are not 
justly held. They are, it is true, generally begun iu industry and fru- 
gality; but they grow from other causes. It is a singular fact tliat not 
one dollar of the present fortunes of Vanderbilt, of Gduld, or of the As- 
tors, has been earned by the possessors. The original which was earned 
has been long since spent, and those fabulous fortunes tO-day are entire- 
ly composed of moneys received either as rent, intfelres^ j«or dividfe'nd^.^^ — 
Dement r Workers and Id'eals, pp, 29-30. 

5. Ely: Political E<?on'omy^ pp. 215-216; Walkers Political Econ- 
omy, pp. 211-214. 



Chap. XXVIII RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT 371 

these men claim, a way by which the landlord can 
collect from the general public ^'unearned benefits'' 
for himself, and while we are under capitalism there is 
no escape. 

485. The Appeal to Conscience.— But the final ap- 
peal of the capitalist is to the public conscience. These 
teachers who tell us that economics has nothing to do 
with ethics, who tell us that ^'love of country, love of 
honor, love of friends, love of learning, love of art, 
pity, honor, shame, religion, charity, will never * * * 
withstand in the slightest degree or for the shortest 
time the effort of the economic man to amass wealth, ' '^ 
when they can find no defense, even in their own kind 
of economics, for this theft of the very earth itself, ap- 
peal to those from whom the earth has been stolen, to 
deal conscientiously with those found in possession of 
the stolen property. Professor Ely says regarding the 
return of the earth to those to whom it belongs,''' it 
' ^ will never, in the opinion of the author, appeal to the 
conscience of the American public as a just thing. ''^ 
Francis A. Walker says: ^^As the surrender is now 
generations, even centuries old, and as the land has 

6. Walker: Political Economy, p. 16 

7. "Private property in or commercial ownership of the land can 
give no valid title against the inheritance nature bestows, and upon the 
recognition of which all principles of justifiable property or ownership 
depend. 'The earth belongs in usufruct to the living.' No title which 
gives the present holder *the right to its future products forever' and 
so subverts this principle, can have any just force or application; be- 
cause the very law of property depends upon the right to control that 
which our labor has effected. And since labor is absolutely powerless 
to create or effect the production of any property without access to 
the I'aw material, the earth and its substances and forces, any owner- 
ship of these which debars labor from their use destroys the right to 
produce property, and thus strikes at the fundamental principle upon 
Avhich all true property in human society rests.*' — .J. K, Ingalls: Eco- 
nomic Equities, pp. 7-8. 

8. Ely: Political Economy, p. 297. 

''As the rights of property cannot pxist without correlative and com- 
mensurate duties, so the performance of those duties can not be neg- 
lected without bringing the rights into peril. We cannot insist upon t&e 
rights .if we refu«'e to perform the duties." — Lilly: First Principlie's of 
Po'litic^, p. 44. 



372 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Pabt IV 

changed owners * * * it would be simple robbery 
for the state to reassert its interests in the land, with- 
out fully indenmifying owners. ' '^ And then he argues 
at length that indemnification is ^impracticable/' 
would lead to '^corruption" and finally, in effect, that 
it would be better to give up our just claim to the earth 
to those who unjustly possess it. 

486. ^'Indemnification'* for ''Unearned Benefits.'' 
—A single question will settle all this dust and clear 
the atmosphere for action. "Who will indenmify the 
disinherited? Who will pay the general community 
for the landlord's "unearned benefits at the expense 
of the general community? ' ' This is not asked with re- 
gard to the wrongs of the past. Indemnification for 
the needless poverty and the starvation, suffering and 
death of the helpless women and children for a single 
year of the past would bankrupt the capitalism of the 
earth. But this question is asked for the future. No 
matter how many times titles have changed hands, nor 
how many innocent purchasers are involved, they will 
not be innocent if they continue to collect "unearned 
benefits at the expense of the general community. "^^ 
It does not matter what payments were made in the 
past. If they were made with the products of the past, 
for services rendered in the past, then the account is 
settled, and neither side to the bargain can have any 
just claims against the future. If the pretended pay- 
ments of the past were merely promises made in the 
past, but to be really paid with the products of the 
future, then they were no payments at all. And herein, 
again, is the wrong of all bargains as touching the pri- 

9. Walker: Political Economy, p. 395. 

10. "If the society is poorly or defectively organized, there is a free 
multiplication of the parasitic classes, and the collapse and total ruin 
of that society soon follows. On the other hand, if the resistance 
which it offers to exploitation be at all adequate, there will be a speedy 
elimination of the individuals and classes who become parasitic," — 
Massart and Vandervelde: Parasitism — Organic and Social, pp. 121-22. 



Chap. XXVIII RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT 373 

vate ownership of the earth; they all have regard to 
disposing of the products of the labor of the future 
and in such a way as shall put *^ unearned benefits" 
into the hands of the few and ^x undeserved poverty 
as the lot of the many.^^ This is not robbery of the liv- 
ing only; it is the veriest rape and outrage of the un- 
born.^2 

487. Buying One's Own Birthright.— Who shall 
be indemnified? Shall the private owner of the earth 
be given the* full value of the very blood of the toilers 

11. "From man down the creatures live by preying on each other. 
Insidious parasites infest all kinds of plants and animals. Everything 
seems to have some mortal foe. The very ants go to war for all 
the world like men, and Venus' flytrap (Dionala) is as cruel as a spider. 
So human society is riddled with mischiefs and wrongs, some, like 
Armenian massacres, due to surviving savagery, and some, like slums, to 
sickly civilization." — President Eliot: American Contributions to Civili- 
zation, pp. 269-70. 

"A receiver of stolen goods sells me something that I stand greatly 
in need of, at a very low price. Strictly as between him and me, as 
trading persons, he doubtless renders me a service, the full equivalent of 
the money I pay to him; but as between society and him, and even 
between him and me as a member of society, there is an account still 
open that has to be adjusted. 

"A highwayman points a pistol at my head, but offers to spare m€ 
if I shall give him $500, which I proceed to do with the greatest alacrity, 
In sparing my life he renders me the highest possible service, one for 
which I would gladly, were it needful, pay many times $500. Indeed, on 
no equal payment during my life do I so much felicitate myself. Still 
the question will arise. How came the highwayman to be in a position 
to do me such a vital service, and, after all, what right has he to my 
$500? 

"In like manner, while the owner of the land who at a certain rent 
leases me a few acres on which I may work to raise food for myself and 
family, undoubtedly does me a great service, as compared with not giv- 
ing me leave to cultivate it upon any terms whatever, it will still be 
rational and pertinent for me to inquire, at least under my breath, what 
business he has with the land any more than I or any one else. Why 
should 1 not have the whole produce of my ten- acre lot without deduc- 
tion, although I freely confess that I would rather submit to the deduc- 
tion than not have it at all * * * " — Walker: Land and Its Rent, 
pp. 63-64. 

12. "I have not the slightest doubt that the miserable condition of 
the poorer classes in our large towns is greatly due to the accumulation 
of land in a few hands in such towns, and to the possession of land 
by corporations." — Rogers: Work and Wages, p. 530. 

"We plead for 'a strong, tense, elastic organization,' which puts the 
individual on his feet, and gives him the arena of his powers. Men are 
to bear in mind the constant tendency of power to usurpation. While 
the laws of industry are not to be set aside, fresh conditions are to be 



374 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

which he is about to take, and who have nothing else to 
give, in order that he may be bought to loosen his grip 
on the toilers' throats, or must the toilers still con- 
tinue to surrender their natural birthright to the earth 
and forever submit to an inheritance of dependence 
and want, not for themselves alone, but for the un- 
born after them? 

When the ^* American public" once understands the 
jugglery of which it is the victim, its conscience as 
well as its economic necessities will make short work of 
these ^^ unearned benefits at the expense of the gen- 
eral community. "^^ 

488. Services and Limitations of the Single Tax.— 

If it be said that the single tax offers a way out, the 

constantly provided for their fair and favorable operation. Society is to 
strive for a perpetual renewal of opportunities and a redistribution of 
advantages, so that every child shall come from the cradle to a fresh 
world with fresh incentives, not to one overworn and used up for him by 
the errors of the past generations. Industrial usurpations are no more 
sacred than those of civil power: tyranny may be in the possession 
of property just as certainly as in that of authority. Indeed, the 
tyranny of ownership may become the more subtle and extended of the 
two. In a matter of such universal interest as personal opportunity and 
discipline, the gist of every wise measure is found in a maintenance of 
motives, a renovated and freshly habilitated life. Society should look 
sharply to the laws of social hereditament, should see what we do in- 
herit, and what we ought to inherit, and this with a supreme sense of 
the right of the race evershadowing that of personal or private rights." 
— Bascom: Sociology, p. 252. 

"Yet the root of right is reason, the slow creeping reason of the ag- 
gregate mind. Customs which are congealed errors must yield to the 
clear, coherent push of reason proper. Every question must at length 
be brought into this light, and there be answered. * * * Custom may 
allow one by entail to follow and control his property for a thousand 
years, but reason will assert, and its assertion will at length be heeded, 
that the dead yield the earth to the living. Each man's life interest in 
it is a life interest, and all beyond that must have strict reference to 
the public weal." — Bascom: Sociology, p. 17. 

13. "The problem has, however, to be forced. Either we must sub- 
rait forever to hand over at least one- third of our annual product to 
those who do us the favor to own our country, without the obligation of 
rendering any service to the community, and to see this tribute augment 
with every advance in our industry and numbers, or else we must take 
steps, as considerately as may be possible, to put an end to this state of 
things. Nor does equity yield any such conclusive objection to the latter 
course. Even if the children of our proprietors have come into the world 
booted and spurred, it can scarcely be contended that whole generations 



Chap. XXVIII RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT 375 

answer is that the single tax proposes, for a specified 
payment made to the public by those who are them- 
selves a part of the public, to surrender the earth for 
their private use and profit, and that under the wage 
system. It would leave both interest and profit un- 
touched. It would leave the worker without organiza- 
tion, without equipment and to the same inheritance of 
dependence on a private employer as before. The rela- 
tion of mastery and servitude would still remain to de- 
bauch the one class and to oppress the other.^"^ 

If it be said that under the single tax any particular 
worker who should be dissatisfied with his wages 
could have his total product by going to work on his 
own account, which he could easily do with free access 

of their descendants yet unborn have a vested interest to ride on the 
backs of whole generations of unborn workers. Few persons will be- 
lieve that this globe must spin round the sun forever charged with this 
colossal mortgage implied by private ownership of the ground rents of 
great cities, merely because a few generations of mankind, over a small 
part of its area, could at first devise no better plan of appropriating its 
surface. '"" * * But against the permanent welfare of the community 
the unborn have no rights; and not even a living proprietor can possess 
a vested interest in the existing system of taxation. The democracy 
may be trusted to find, in dealing with the landlord, that the resources 
of civilization are not exhausted. * * * This growth in collective owner- 
ship it is, and not any vain sharing out of property, which is to achieve 
this practical equality of opportunity at which democracy aims." — 
Webb: Problems of Modern Industry, pp. 240-41. 

14. "Finally, that the single tax would be an unjust burden on 
labor and could not, therefore, solve the labor problem is as easily dem- 
onstrated. It is only necessary to note that this tax is based on a fic- 
titious, vanishing 'land value,' and not on the intrinsic, permanent, real, 
the producing value of the land. Hence, the proceeds of a single tax as- 
sessment, notably in the cities where it could alone be effectively ap- 
plied, must come, not from the land in question itself, which in this 
case produces nothing, but from wealth otherwise produced or appropri- 
ated. But, as all wealth is ultimately the product of land and labor, 
freely admitted by the single taxers, it logically and inevitably follows 
that this assessed wealth or tax, this much lauded, 'non- shifting' single 
tax, is nothing more nor less, after all, than a plain tax on labor, pre- 
cisely the same appropriated (robbed) labor as is all other appropriated 
wealth or capital. 

"Stripped of its only meritorious, socialistic features and reduced to 
its logical absurdity, the single tax system is nothing more nor less 
than the sale, by a given community, of their most advantageous loca- 
tion for exploiting the people to the man who is willing to pay to these 
same deluded people the biggest price for his noble privilege of robbing 



376 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVEKSY Part IV 

to the soil, the answer is that under the single tax a 
dissatisfied worker would have the alternative of tak- 
ing such wages as a private employer would give him 
in a shop, thoroughly equipped and perfectly organ- 
ized, or he could go to work on his own account and 
have all he could produce, working single-handed, 
without equipment, without organization, and on any 
untaken, and hence on the least desirable, locatioiis. On 
the other hand, the Socialist contends that the workers 
are entitled to all that can be produced, with the best 
organization, best equipment and on all the land, in- 
cluding both the poorest and the best locations. And, 
further, the Socialist contends that those who do work 
shall not depend for an opportunity to do so on the 
consent of those who do not. 

489. Thrift— Saving and Interest.— As to interest 
payments, the political economists have until recently 
contended that interest is the reward of thrift and 
saving,^^ but this contention has become absurd in the 
face of the thriftless and extravagant lives of the 
greater share of those engaged in the coupon-clipping 
industry. 

490. Risk.— The payment for risk has been offered 
as a sufficient justification.^^ But payment for risk is 
insurance. The mortgages, endorsements and other 
collateral securities are intended to cover the risks. 
Absolutely good security may lower the rate, but it 
does not abolish interest. 

491. Share of the Profits. -The latest defense of in- 
terest is that it is a guaranteed share of the profits.^''' 

them, — a proposition savoring strongly of licensed brigandage and pos- 
sible only under our present absurd and immoral social system." — 
H. P. Moyer. 

15. Walker: Political Economy, pp. 230-231. 

16. Ely: An introduction to Political Economy, p. 217; Walker: 
Political Economy, p. 236. 

17. This position was taken in the American Economic Associa- 
tion in its session at Chicago, in 1893, and was generally concurred in 



Chap. XXVIII RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT S77 

The capitalist is a kind of partner in the business. If 
his share of the profits can be guaranteed so that he 
may neglect the business, may go South in the winter 
and to the sea in the summer, and can do his share in 
^^ thrift and saving '^ by spending what others create, 
then he consents to a low fixed rate of profits, called in- 
terest.^^ 

So the real defense of interest is shifted to the de- 
fense of profit, and interest and profit must stand or 
fall together. 

492. Profit and Superintendence.— In the same way 
profits were formerly defended as ^^ wages of superin- 
tendence,'' but now the owner pays wages to a super- 

by the leading American teachers of political economy, present and par- 
ticipating in the discussion. 

18. "In ancient times the loaning of money set up an odious debt- 
slavery. The fields of wealthy Romans were in great measure tilled by 
gangs of adjudicated debtors, who were in a more evil plight than the 
convicts employed on Portland Harbor, ***** ^t Athens (600 
B. C.) similar conditions prevailed." — Blissard: The Ethics of Usury 
and Interest, pp. 3-4; see Grote: History of Greece, Vol. III., p. 213, ap- 
pendix. 

"The precise meaning of profits, and its character as the reward of 
enterprise, will become clearer if we distinguish it from two things that 
are often combined and compared with it. Profit, in its strict sense, does 
not include wages of management; in the case of many businesses they 
can be easily distinguished. In a great railway company, the share- 
holders are the capitalists and get the profits, but they have very little 
to do with the management; that lies with the directors, who get their 
fees, as well as profits on the shares they hold, and with the manager 
and other officials, who get salaries, but may possibly hold no shares and 
therefore get no profits. In exactly the same way in any private con- 
cern the gross income, which the proprietor draws from it consists of two 
parts: the profit on the capital he has invested in it, and the wages he 
is entitled to for work in organization and administration. That is, as 
we have already seen, a very highly paid kind of work, and the gains of 
the capitalists, who manage their own enterprises, should be considered 
and including wages for their time, as well as profits on the capital they 
risk. 

"This distinction is clear enough; there is more difficulty in dis- 
criminating between profit, as already described, and interest. Profit 
is reward of enterprise, but interest is the payment demanded by a cap- 
italist who does not undertake any enterprise himself personally. He 
lets other people use his wealth, on the condition of giving him a regular 
return for it while they have the use of it. So far as possible he bar- 
gains himself out of the risks, and therefore he must be contented with 
a lower rate of return than those who undertake the risks of the enter- 
prise." — Cunningham: Modern Civilization in Some of Its Economic 
Aspects, pp. 138-39. 



378 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

intendent,^^ while he goes along with the interest-taker^ 
the one spending what is obtained through interest pay- 
ments and the other what is obtained through divi- 
dends, but both expend what neither creates, but what 
the workers create in their absence.^^ 

Professor Ely says that profit ^^is the return which 
one receives for the organization and management of 
a business at one 's risk. ' '^^ Is it contended that if risk 
could be taken out of the problem, profits would dis- 
appear? If not, then neither ^^ wages of superintend- 
ence," nor *^ reward for risk" is a justification of 
profits. 

493. The Skillfully Managed.— Mr. Walker argues 
that profits arise as the difference between the most 
skillfully and most wastefully managed plants, both of 
which are necessary to supply the market. The most 
wastefully managed fixes the market price and the 
most skillfully managed makes the difference between 
the market price and the cost of production in the 
skillfully managed shop.^^ 

But the trust is putting all the shops under a single 
management, and that the most skilled. When this is 
done and there remains no difference in cost between 
the most skillful and the most wasteful managements, 
will profits then disappear! If so, the Standard Oil 
Company should stop paying to its stockholders, each 



19. Ely: Political Economy, p. 217. 

20. "All the social functions of the capitalist are now performed 
by salaried employes. The capitalist has no further social function than 
that of pocketing dividends, tearing off coupons and gainbling on the 
Stock Exchange, where the different capitalists despoil one another of 
their capital. At first the capitalistic mode of production forces out the 
workers. Now it forces out the capitalists, and reduces them, just as it 
reduced the workers, to the ranks of the surplus population, although 
not immediately into those of the industrial reserve army.** — Engels: 
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, p. 71. 

21. Ely: Introduction to Political Econom.y, p. 217. 

22. Walker: Political Economy, pp. 247-259. 



Chap. XXVIII RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT 37§i 

twelve months, more than the total sum of the original 
investment in the business. 

494. The Laborer*s Right Undisputed.— The la- 
borer is the only factor in production whose claim to 
some share of the product .^s never been defended by 
the economists. His claim is so evident that it needs 
no defense. 

495. The Real Question.— Adam Smith is called 
^^the father of political economy/' and his first sen- 
tence in discussing the wages of labor is : ^ ^ The produce 
of labor constitutes the natural recompense or wages 
of labor.' '2^ Then why does not the laborer get that 
produce, and get it all!^^ 

496. The Answer.— 1. It is because the landlord pos- 
sesses the earth, and will not permit its use, except the 
toiler buys what the landlord does not justly own, by 
payments of rent. 

2. It is because the capitalist possesses the machin- 
ery, which has been created by society through the 
long centuries of its growth, and will not permit the 

23. Adam Smith : Wealth of Nations, p. 49. 

24. "If they [the working classes] create a small amount of wealth 
and get the whole of it, they may not revolutionize society; but if it 
were to appear that they produce an ample amount and get only a 
part of it, many of them would become revolutionists, and all of them 
would have a right to do so. The indictment that hangs over society is 
that of 'exploiting labor.' 'Workmen,' it is said, 'are regularly robbed 
of what they produce. This is done within the forms of law, and by 
the natural working of competition.' If this charge were proved, every 
right-minded man would be a Socialist and his zeal in transforming the 
industrial system would then measure and express his sense of justice. 
* * * The right of the present social system to exist at all depends 
upon its honesty. * * * ^ plan of living that should force men to 
leave in their employers' hands anything that by right of creation is 
theirs, would be institutional robbery — a legally established violation 
of the principle on which property is supposed to rest. 

"This is the problem we have to solve. It is an issue of pure fact. 
If the law on which property [right] is supposed to rest — the rule, 'to 
each what he creates' — actually works at the point where the possession 
of property begins, in the payments that are made in the mill, etc., for 
values there created, it remains for practical men so to perfect the 
industrial system, after its kind — that exceptions to this prevalent 
rule may be less frequent and less considerable. We can deal other- 
wise with robberies that are not institutional ; but it is evident that a 



380 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

turning of a wheel except the toiler buys him oft* with 
payments of interest.^^ 

3. It is because industry is undertaken for private 
profits and the management will maintain a lockout 
until its profits are secure, regardless of the ruin which 
overwhelms the worker's family while he waits for 

society in which property is made to rest on the claim of a producer to 
what he creates must, as a general rule, vindicate that right at the 
point where titles originate — that is, in payments that are made for la- 
bor. If it were to do otherwise, there would be at the foundation of the 
social structure an explosive element which sooner or later would destroy 
it. For nothing, if not to protect property, does the state exist. Hence 
a state which should force a workman to leave behind him, in the mill, 
property that was his by right of creation, would fail at a critical point. 
A study of distribution settles this question, as to whether the modern 
state is true to its principle."- — Clark: The Distribution of Wealth, 
Chapter I. 

"The fact through which the ascendancy of the present continues 
to express itself in the economic process is everywhere the same. We 
have it in view under the phenomenon of the legalized enforcement, 
whether by individuals, or classes, or corporations, or sometimes even 
by whole peoples, of rights which do not correspond to an equiva- 
lent in social utility. This is the phenomenon which John Stuart Mill 
and the English utilitarians had in view in their early attack on the in- 
stitution of unearned increments. This is the phenomenon which, in the 
last analysis, we see Henry George endeavoring to combat in his de- 
nouncement of the monopoly ownership of natural utilities. This is the 
phenomenon with which we see Marx struggling in his theory of surplus 
value, so far as it is true — the phenomenon, that is to say, of the acquire- 
ment by capital of values in the produce of labor which represent mon- 
opoly rights not earned by capital in terms of function. It is the phe- 
nomenon we have in view that class of fortunes accumulated in stock 
exchange values which have not been earned in terms of function. It is 
the fact underlying every form of private right accruing from increase, 
unearned in terms of social utility, in the profit ownership of the instru- 
ments and materials of production. It is the phenomenon we have in 
view in the now universal tendency in modern industry to monopqly 
ownership, or its equivalent in monopoly control; with the resulting 
accumulation of vast private fortunes through the enforced disad- 
vantage of classes, of whole communities, and even of entire na- 
tions. It is the fact underlying every form of the exploitation of a less 
developed people, whether by special tariffs or otherwise by a ruling 
race for its own private advantage. And last of all, it is the phenomenon 
which meets us in its final colossal phase in the international world- 
process, under the tendency of aggregates of capital, in an uncontrolled 
and irresponsible scramble for profit governed in the last resort simply 
by the qualities contributing to success and survival in a free fight 
for private gain, to control the general exploitation of the natural re- 
sources of the world at the level of its lowest standards in human life 
and human labor. * * *"— Kidd: Principles of Western Civilization, 
p. 476 and following. 

25. "Capital is the accumulated stock of human labor." — ^Mill, 
Quoted by Adams in Law of Civilization and Decay, p. 313. 



Chap. XXVIII RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT 381 

permission to create the very wealth for the lack of 
which his children die. 

4. It is because the toilers must first provide this 
rent, interest and profit for those who render no neces- 
sary service in production before they are permitted to 
produce at all, either for themselves or for the helpless 
ones who depend upon them.^^ 

497. The Prison House of Toil.— This is the wage 
system. This is capitalism. This is the present prison- 
house of toil. The masters of industry and commerce 
have been able to compel the toilers to *' divide up'' 
with them, simply and only because in the evolution 
of human society it has reached this stage of advance. 
They can continue to do this only so long as they can 
have the authority of the citizenship of the toilers to 
support them in doing so. They can continue to do this 
only until society shall evolve out of capitalism into So- 
cialism, and in this evolution the toilers themselves 
must become the builders of society. 

498. The Way Out Is Socialism.— 1. Under Social- 
ism, society will own the land, and there will be no 
rent to pay. 

2. Under Socialism, society will own the tools of 
production, and there will be no interest to pay. 

3. Under Socialism, society, acting through those 
who are engaged in any industry and who will know 
most about it, and not through private stockholders 
both absent and ignorant, will manage production and 
there will be no profits to pay. 

4. Under Socialism, whoever shares in the division 
of the products will share because he is, or is to be, or 

26. "Between robbery and monopoly the difference appears very 
greftt, but it consists in two things, both of which are quantitative only. 
The^e are the rudeness and the illegality of the former as contrasted 
with the civility and the legality of the latter. The principle of a pro- 
cedure is not changed by mollifying the method. The motive is the 
same."— Ward : Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., p. 583. 



382 QUESTIONS OF CONTROVERSY Part IV 

has been a producer and no others, unless the victims 
of disabling misfortune, who will be abundantly cared 
for, but without the shame of pauperism. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. According to the capitalist, by whom is wealth produced? 

2. What does each party do in production, and what is the share 
of each in the products? 

3. How does the capitalist justify the collection of rent? 

4. State and answer the argument for rent (1) as related to im- 
provements. (2) As compared to the private ownership of patents, copy- 
rights and corporation stocks. 

5. State the grounds of agreement and the point of separation be- 
tween the single taxer and the Socialist. 

6. Quote Walker on the private ownership of land. 

7. State and answer the argument that rent is not added to the 
market price of products and that therefore it is not paid by the general 
public. 

8. State and answer the appeal of the economist to the public 
conscience on the land question. 

9. Why is not the single tax a way of deliverance for the working 
man? 

10. State and answer the defense of interest as made by the 
economist (1) on the ground of thrift and saving, (2) on the ground of 
risk, and (3) on the ground that it is a guaranteed part of profit, 

11. State and answer the defense of profit (1) as wages of super- 
intendence; (2) as reward for risk; and (3) as reward for special busi- 
ness ability as compared with a poorly managed business. 

12. Does rent, interest or profit rest on any necessary share in pro- 
duction? If not, then why are they permitted? 

13? Under Socialism how will the workers be made secure in the 
use of the whole product of their labor? 



PART V 

CURRENT PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC INTEREST 
AND SOCIALISM 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE FINE ARTS AND SOCIALISM 

499. What Is Art?— This is not a discussion of the 
fine arts, but a study of Socialism as related to the fine 
arts. There is nothing more hotly disputed than 
' ' What is Art I ' ' and this will not be an attempt to an- 
swer that question. But there is nothing more certain 
than the natural hunger of a man for that which is 
beautiful. The things which can excite in his breast 
the emotions resulting from a vision of splendor, or of 
grandeur, or of truth and beauty, are things which he 
will prize, and he who can create the things which will 
produce these emotions will always have no small share 
in making this a world, not only of comfort, but of 
gladness.^ 

1. "Art unites the spiritual and the physical in perfect being. It 
adds that supreme emotional perfection to life which we term beauty. 
* * '^ Art plays an important part in sociology, not only in compet- 
ing stages of progress, but often as indicating the true direction, when 
men are baffled by misapplied energy. In some sense beauty, perfection 
of form, is the culmination of science, philosophy and faith, as it is 

383 



384 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

500. The Industrial and the Fine Arts.— The indus- 
trial arts are devoted to the comfort of the world, the 
fine arts to its gladness. 

It is a curious fact that the beginnings of the fine arts 
were made first, and of the industrial arts afterwards.^ 
Songs are older than statutes. Poetry is older than 
prose. Carving ornaments is older than the building 
of houses. Patches of color were put on the faces first, 
and then on fabrics. The artist came first, and the 
artisan followed him. Human speech existed as music 
before it was spoken in words. ^'Articulately speak- 
ing men ' ' were those who had broken the earlier music- 
al tones into bits and pieces and had fixed a meaning to 
these bits of speech, which could not otherwise be given 
by the echoing voices of the primeval forests.^ While 
modern singing so slurs the words that the unpracticed 
ear cannot catch them, and so misses the meaning of the 
songs, the older music had no words at all, and human 
beings called to each other across sex lines, and 
charmed each other, not by the meaning of the words 
in the songs they sung, but by the deeper meaning of 
their wordless songs. 

501. ** Songs Without Words/ '-Songs without 
words had been sung for a thousand centuries before 
Mendelssohn tried to catch them on the written scale 
and to repeat them on instruments of music. When 
words became an important part in speech the rhythm 
of the older songs still clung to the forms of speech, 
and all the earliest literature of the race was in the 
form of poetry. Prose was a later invention. The 
rhythm in natural speech was omitted from it, only by a 
conscious effort to do so. The oldest literature was 

the fullness and force of the inner life, and its complete mastery over 
the physical terms at its disposal." — ^Bascom: Sociology, p, 261. 

2. Darwin: Descent of Man, p. 592. 

3. Darwin: Descent of Man, pp. 589-590. 



Chap. XXIX THE FINE ARTS 385 

listened to, not read, and the music of its rhythmic 
movement, no less than the meaning of its message, se- 
cured its hearing. Julius Caesar said of the ancient 
Druids of Britain : ' ^ They learn to repeat a great many 
verses so that they sometimes remain (in school) twen- 
ty years. They think it an unhallowed thing to commit 
their lore to writing. ' '^ The epics of Homer, the orig- 
inal of the early Biblical narratives, and the remnants 
of the Babylonian writings, preserved by wedge-shaped 
characters on blocks of clay, were all in forms of verse. 
The utterances of the American Indians were full of 
symbol, parable and rhythm, all poetic forms of speech. 

502. Word Pictures and Oratory.— On great and 
grave occasions, when great souls give voice to the race 
thought of the hour, and real oratory speaks again, it 
is the imagery, the word picture, the parable, the 
rhythm of both voice and movement which awakens 
the sleeping artist in all men, and compels them "to 
hear him gladly'' even while they hear words of their 
own reproof. 

503. Form and Color.— The same is true of form 
and color as it is of speech. In voice and form and 
color, the artist is really older than is man himself. 
The beginnings of man 's use of all these were in efforts 
of the sexes to attract each other across sex lines. It 
was the ornament, the display and the long low love 
call of one waiting for his mate that was the beginning 
of all art, and this beginning was made in the animal 
life which preceded the development of life into the 
form of man. And it furthermore survives and is 
shown each hour in the free life of our cousins of the 
fields and forests. The appreciation of sweetness and 
beauty of voice, form or color and the desire to impart 
the joy of this apreciation to others is the incentive to 

4. Caesar: Britannia. 



386 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

all art, and this is a natural inheritance of both man 
and beast.^ 

The perfect human being is, without dispute, the 
most complete expression of beauty, in form, color, 
movement, and voice, yet known to man. It ought to 
be remembered that man's love of beauty while he had 
not yet outgrown the shaggy and disheveled career of 
his brute ancestry, operated through the well known 
laws of evolutionary sex selection to create, through the 
long centuries of his growth, these forms of beauty 
and this voice of song. 

504. Life, Love and Art.— Architecture, sculpture, 
painting, music, and literature all appeal to the eye or 
ear and all attempt to create in those who see or listen, 
the emotions which inspire their creation.^ It is not 
only true that the earliest art was the effort to speak 
across sex lines, but it is still true that the emotions, 
the mysteries and the aspirations of life which culmi- 
nate in sex relations, reaching backward to the cradle 
and forward to the grave, are still the subject and sub- 
stance of all art. 

If it be a song, there is somewhere the thought of 

5. "The esthetic faculty does not seem to be traceable quite as far 
back as is animal altruism, which is found in some asexual forms and 
perhaps in Protozoa, but when it is found it is always conscious. All 
sexual selection is based on it, and we saw how early this began to 
transform the male element, to mold it into forms and to adorn it 
with hues that charmed the female. We traced these transformations 
up through the successively higher types till they culminated in such 
glorious objects as the male bird of paradise, the lyre bird, the pea- 
cock's tail, and the pheasant's plumes. It cropped out in the insect 
world in quite another way, more directly connected with the onto- 
genetic forces, led to the cross fertilization of flowers, and gave to the 
world its floral beauties. Similarly it has been well-nigh demonstrated 
that many of the large and luscious showy fruits have resulted from 
the advantage that their attractiveness to birds gave them in securing 
the wider distribution of such forms and their consequent survival in 
the struggle for existence. Thus long anterior to the advent of man the 
esthetic faculty, as a necessary concomitant of nerve (we can scarcely 
say brain) development, was embellishing the earth with products 
that the highest human tastes unanimously agree to call beautiful." — 
Ward: Pure Sociology. 

6. Tolstoi: What is Art, pp. 70-71. 



Chap. XXIX THE FINE ARTS 887 

love, or of the life which is dear because of love. If it 
be a landscape, there is the teeming life of the orchard 
and the meadow and the glad companionship of the 
flocks and herds. If it be a cathedral, there is the gloom 
and silence, the majesty and beauty which speaks of 
the greatness and value of the life it would reveal. If 
it be a story, it is flat and meaningless, unless it tells of 
the passion of some lonely life. If it be a battle scene, 
it is but coarse blotches of meaningless color, unless it 
tells of resistance against the enemy of wife or home or 
country— and country as the defender not the despoiler 
of all of life. If it be a mountain peak, lonely and si- 
lent, and beyond approach, were it not for the loneliness 
of the human heart, it would be meaningless. The pic- 
ture of the Holy Mother— and when was worthy moth- 
erhood other than holy— or of the helpless child, or of 
the marriage feast, or of the sad and silent mourner for 
the lost, all these speak of love, and gladden only those 
who, too, have loved. 

505. Joy of Life the Source of Art.— Art is the ex- 
pression of the joy of life. There can be no art where 
there is no joy. Great art means great life with the 
fullness of joy, and art as the glad expression of its 
greatness. 

Now what are the relations of capitalism and Social- 
ism to the fine arts ? 

506. Capitalism Cuts Off the Sources of Art.— Cap- 
italism destroys the joy of life which makes art pos- 
sible. All men who toil, all traders and salesmen, and 
commercial travelers and clerks are compelled, under 
capitalism, to live and act as servants or as masters. 
Each man 's life is made dependent, not on the common 
life of all, but on the special whim or fancy of some 
master. Even the masters depend on one another in 
such a manner as to make no life really free. Now the 
first essential of the life which makes art possible is 



388 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

that it shall be glad. The compulsory life of capital- 
ism makes a free, and so a glad, life impossible. There 
is no way by which free life can be secured for any 
one, until the existence of every one shall be made se- 
cure without dependence on any one who can by any 
means deprive him of his living. Such a condition can 
never be under capitalism. 

Socialism will secure the livelihood of all, and there- 
fore Socialism would give the freedom which would 
make possible the gladness of this common life. So- 
cialism would thus restore the very thing which capi- 
talism takes away, and without which real art can 
never be. 

507. Loss of Leisure.— Capitalism deprives the or- 
dinary man of the leisure and the means, either to pro- 
duce or to enjoy the works of art.''' This lack of leis- 
ure deprives the world of the art work of the multi- 
tudes who have the natural endowment but not the 
time nor the means with which to cultivate either taste 
or skill; and it makes a tragedy of the lives of those 
who, in hunger and neglect, nevertheless strive to give 
expression to the beauty they see around them, and 
which, in the travail of their own sorrows, they strive 
to reveal to others.^ 

508. **Worn Out."— But the others are overworked 
and underfed, or they are underworked and overfed, 
and in either case they are deaf and blind to the music 
and beauty of the penniless genius. Because there is 
no time, the people cannot learn the song of life, and if 

7. "Hence sociology looks to the equalization of social relations. 
Civilization is a miseral)ly crude experiment until it is possible for 
each member of society to command food and clothing and shelter 
and surplus and leisure enough to permit progressive and all- sided 
expansion of manhood." — Small and Vincent: Introduction to the 
Study of Society, p. 79. 

8, "The immense product of the imagination in art and literature 
is a concrete fact with which every educated human being should be 
made somewhat familiar, such product being a very real part of every 
individual's actual environment." — Eliot: Educational Reforms, p. 405. 



Chap. XXIX THE FINE ARTS 389 

they could, they have neither time nor spirit left to 
share in the singing. When ^ ' piped unto * ' they cannot 
^^ dance." They do not know the music, nor have they 
strength or time. 

509. Deaf and Blind.— It is not the poor alone who 
cannot share in the joy which art might give. It is the 
rich as well. The one is bound by his poverty, the other 
by conventionalism. The poor man goes to a poor show 
not because his tastes are low, but because it is cheap. 
The rich man goes to the best of plays, not because he 
understands or appreciates them, but because it is the 
fashion. His commercialism has blinded him to the 
greatest beauty.^ It is a common remark among the 
best artists, both in the drama and the concert, that 
they are paid by the private boxes and the orchestra 
circle, but that they are appreciated by the ushers and 
the gallery. Under Socialism, leisure will be within 
the reach of all; genius will not need to starve the 
body in order to gratify the heart, and those who really 
love music and drama will not need to deny themselves 
of the comforts of life in order to secure a seat in the 
gallery when genius speaks or sings.^^ 

Under Socialism and because of the leisure it will 
secure for all, instead of the few who now enjoy and 



9. '"Since the time of the Roman aristocracy what has any aris- 
tocracy done for art and literature or law? They have for over a 
thousand years been in possession of nearly the whole resources of 
every country in Europe. They have had its wealth, its libraries, its 
archives, its teachers at their disposal; and yet was there ever a more 
pitiful record than the list of 'Royal and Noble Authors ?' * * * The 
painting and the sculpture of modern Europe owe not only their glory, 
but their very existence, to the labors of poor and obscure men. The 
great architectural monuments by which its soil is covered were hardly 
any of them the product of aristocratic feeling or liberality/' — Godkin: 
Problems in Modern Democracy, pp. 63 * * * 4. 

10. "I had to go to Verona by the afternoon train. In the carriage 
with me were two American girls with their father and mother, people 
of the class which has lately made so much money suddenly, and does 
not know what to do with it; and these two girls, of about fifteen and 
eighteen, had evidently been indulged in everything (since they had had 
the means), which western civilization could imagine. And here they 



390 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

yet a smaller number who now produce the works of 
art, the millions will be able to enjoy and the tens of 
thousands to produce a better art than the world has 
ever known. 

510. Patronage and Monopoly.— Capitalism has be- 
come the special patron of the artist but its patronage 
is a blight rather than a blessing. It offers a prize for 
producing that which can only come as the glad ex- 



were, specimens of the utmost which the money and invention of the 
nineteenth century could produce in maidenhood, — children of the 
most progressive race, — enjoying the full advantages of political liberty, 
of enlightened philosophical education, of cheap pilfered literature, and 
of luxury at any cost. Whatever money, machinery or freedom of 
thought could do for these two children had been done. No supersti- 
tion had deceived, no restraint degraded them; types they could not 
but be of maidenly wisdom and felicity, as conceived by the forwardest 
intellects of our time. 

"And they were traveling through a district which, if any in the 
world, should touch the hearts and delight the eyes of young girls. 
Between Venice and Verona! Portia's villa perhaps in sight upon 
Brenta — Juliet's tomb to be visited in the evening, — ^blue against the 
southern sky the hills of Petrarch's home. Exquisite midsummer sun- 
shine, with low rays, glanced through the vine leaves; all the Alps 
were clear, from the lake of Garda to Cadore, and to furthest Tyrol, 
What a princess' chamber, this, if these are princesses, and what dreams 
might they not dream therein. But these two American girls, surfeited 
so with indulgence, they had reduced themselves simply to two pieces of 
white putty that could feel pain. The flies and dust stuck to them as to 
clay, and they perceived, between Venice and Verona, nothing but 
the flies and the dust. They pulled down the blinds the moment they 
entered the carriage, and then sprawled, and writhed, and tossed 
among the cushions of it, in vain contest, during the whole fifty miles, 
with every miserable sensation of bodily affliction that could make 
time intolerable. They were dressed in their white frocks, coming 
vaguely open at the backs as they stretched or wiggled; they had 
French novels, lemons, and lumps of sugar, to beguile their state with; 
the novels hanging together by the ends of string that had once stitched 
them, or adhering at the corners in densely bruised dog's -ears, out of 
which the girls, wetting their fingers, occasionally extricated a gluey 
leaf. From time to time they cut a lemon open, ground a lump of sugar 
backward and forward over it till every fibre was in a treacly pulp, then 
sucked the pulp, and gnawed the skin into leathery strings, for the sake 
of its bitter. Only one sentence was exchanged, in the fifty miles, 
on the subject of things outside the carriage (the Alps being once visible 
from a station where they had dra^n up the blinds). 

"'Don't those snow-caps make you cool?* 

"'No; I wish they did.' 

"And so they went their way, with sealed eyes and tormented 
limbs, their numbered miles of pain." — Ruskin, quoted by Rich: The 
Communism of John Ruskin, pp. 199-200. 



Chap. XXIX THE FINE ARTS 391 

pression of that which is in the artist, and secures as a 
result, not an expression of the joy that was within him, 
but an imitator of what some other imitator made when 
he imitated somebody else. 

The prize winning artist wins the prize because he is 
true to the conventional standard, not because he is 
true to himself. The prize promotes the conventional, 
while it smothers the original. The patronage of the 
capitalist sets the artist to making what will satisfy 
the market, not what will express himself. It causes 
the public to value art, not by the joy it gives, but 
solely by the satisfaction of securing some commercial 
curiosity regardless of ability to appreciate or to un- 
derstand the work itself. And so, again, real art suf- 
fers at the hands of these dead counterfeits. 

When capitalism takes from the market a really 
great creation it is to monopolize it, to exclude from it 
those w^ho could appreciate it, and to make, by means of 
it, a vulgar display of wealth, not so much by display- 
ing the work of art as by advertising its cost. 

Capitalistic patronage of art corrupts, misleads and 
destroys the artist 's work, when coming into existence, 
and then monopolizes, degrades and misinterprets it, 
when in spite of patronage some real genius has pro- 
duced something real in art. 

Again, this patronage only reaches the real genius 
after the years of penury and neglect have so embit- 
tered his life that even the appreciation of his work 
can have but small effect, either as a reward to the 
artist, or an incentive to further work.^^ 

Under Socialism no man will ever need the patron- 
age of another in order to express himself in things of 
beauty or in words of song. It is inconceivable that 
under Socialism the works of genius would remain the 

11. Ruskin: Political Economy and Art. 



392 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

monopolized curiosities of those who cannot appreciate 
them, while those who can would be excluded from 
their presence. 

Under Socialism and in the absence of capitalistic 
patronage, the real artist can do real work, and those 
for whom it is done will not be prevented from appre- 
ciating and enjoying it because of the poverty of the 
artist or the meanness of some private patron. 

511. Natural Beauty and Commercial Ugliness.— 
The world of nature is full of beauty. It is the world 
which capitalism has created that is full of ugliness. 
It is the practical world of capitalism, which can see 
no reason why the world should not be made a place 
of ugliness if it pays. 

Capitalism has made deserts of the fields and for- 
ests. It has built hovels and unsightly tenements for 
the workers. It has defaced the rocks and deformed 
the landscape, with its fences, bill boards, and un- 
sightly smoke stacks. It has befouled the streams and 
destroyed the waterfalls. It has deserted the places 
of beauty, only to overcrowd the flat and unhealthy 
swamp lands, as convenient for shipping as they are 
unfit for habitation. It has put ugliness, with a divi- 
dend attached to it, into open competition with beauty, 
with no return but the natural joy of life, and under 
economic pressure ugliness "has won in the market 
place. 

Under the sway of capitalism, art has become a false 
and hypocritical pretense. She speaks alone in the 
palaces of the few, and shows her face only to those 
who have betrayed her. Ugliness has become the mas- 
ter of the world. Capitalism builds its death trap in 
shop and hovel and kills beauty as ruthlessly as it mur- 
ders men. 

512. Never Seeing the World.— Only Socialism can 
see a reason why the desert should be covered with 



Chap. XXIX THE FINE ARTS 393 

blossoms, why the toilers should ^ ' dress and keep ' ' the 
earth for its beauty, as well as for its food. The earth 
is the natural inheritance of all; not alone the natural 
resources which can be turned into articles of use for 
the comfort of all, but its natural beauty also. But 
capitalism has kept the many so busy and so poor, that 
they have no knowledge of its grandeur, and this mar- 
velous environment which nature has placed about her 
children, to open their eyes and to teach them the les- 
sons of the good and the beautiful, is never even known 
by them. 

The mountains and canons of Colorado, the water- 
falls like Spokane and Niagara, the stately movements 
of the Columbia, the St. Lawrence or the Hudson, the 
clear and placid waters of a mountain lake, the glory 
of a northern midnight, the grandeur of the Andes or 
the Alps, the marvelous scenery of the Rhine, the curi- 
ous atmospheric effects of a British summer day, the 
clear light which places at one's side the snow capped 
peaks of the distant ranges, the indescribable light and 
color of an Alaskan glacier, the glory and power of a 
sunlit storm at sea, with a rainbow riding in the white 
foam of every broken crest— all these are nature, speak- 
ing, and beckoning to her children to see and to know 
the beautiful, and yet, under capitalism, for most men 
these things might as well never to have been at all. 

Socialism will so cheapen travel, and so enrich the 
workers, that the ends of the earth will be brought 
nigh. What an added meaning to a picture, when 
it suggests a memory so splendid as one's own 
presence in the midst of the most wonderful things in 
nature. How all the world of art will come to all the 
world anew, when all the world itself is known by all 
her children. 

513. Art Is Social.— All art is necessarily social, 
Its object is to express one's life for the purpose of 



394 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

effecting the transfer of its own joy to and into the 
life of another. All capitalism is necessarily anti-so- 
cial. Its purpose is to extract from another, and at 
his loss, the things he needs for his use and comfort 
and for the profit of the one, regardless of the ruin of 
the other. 

Art gives joy. Profit gives grief. The one sings 
its song to express its gladness and to make the listener 
glad. The other repeats its jargon and lays its traps, 
regardless of consequences and leaves all who come 
under its power in bitterness and despair. 

514. The Art Gallery and the Market Place.— Now, 
the things of utility cannot be managed with regard 
to the one motive, and the things of beauty with re- 
gard to the other. If the motive of profit is to remain 
in the market it cannot be kept from the drama and 
the art gallery. If the social idea of art is to obtain a 
footing, even in the art gallery and the concert hall, 
then it must be extended to the market. Either men 
will make clothes with the social ideal of the artist or 
they will paint pictures with the sordid ideal of the 
market.^^ Whichever rules in either must in the end 
be the master of both. Under Socialism the motive of 
the artist will be the master of all. 

515. Art and the Fashion Plates.— Fashions are the 

12. "From the sixteenth century downward, the man of imagina- 
tion, unable to please the economic taste, has starved. 

"This mercenary quality forms the gulf which has divided the art of 
the Middle Ages from that of modern times — a gulf which can not be 
bridged, and which has broadened with the lapse of centuries, until at 
last the artist, like all else in society, has become the creature of a 
commercial market, even as the Greek was sold as a slave to the 
plutocrat of Rome. '"' * * In an economic period, like that which 
has followed the Reformation, wealth is the form in which energy seeks 
expression; therefore, since the close of the fifteenth century, archi- 
tecture has reflected money." 

"No poetry can bloom in the arid modern soil, the drama has died, 
and the patrons of art are no longer even conscious of shame at pro- 
faning the most sacred ideals. The ecstatic dream, which some twelfth 
century monk cut into the stones of the sanctuary hallowed by the 
presence of his God, is reproduced to bedizen a warehouse; or the plan 
of an abbey, which Saint Hugh may have consecrated, is adapted to a 
railway station." — Adams: Law of Civilization and Decay, pp. 381 * * 
* 83. 



Chap. XXIX THE FINE ARTS 395 

creations of the capitalists. They are devised by them, 
enforced by them, changed by them, and they are en- 
forced and changed, to be remade, enforced and 
changed again, not by any advance in art, nor by any 
activity of the artist, but solely and only for the sake of 
the profit to be obtained by such a process. 

The perfect human form is admitted to be the object 
of the highest beauty. The most splendid achieve- 
ments of art have been in giving expression to the hu- 
man form. But conventionalism has decreed that 
man's body is unclean, and the fashion plate has de- 
clared it ugly. Every artistic sense of color, of form 
and of movement is violated, every line of beauty 
broken. The natural form is pinched, and twisted and 
padded, and betrayed, to make of the victim a walking 
advertisement for the maker of the fashion plate. If 
sex selection, based on lines of beauty in the natural 
form of the naked savage, and the natural longing for 
its production, promoted the perfection of the form 
of man, then the contemplation of his dress and the 
maternal longing for a child that would fit his clothes, 
under present forms, would tend to make of him an 
unbearable deformity. 

516. Wrecking the Masterpiece.— Art had its birth 
in beautifying and prefecting the forms of human life. 
Its earliest and its best expressions were in naked 
human forms of ivory and gold and marble, whose 
beauty has not been known since civilization came to 
cover men with rags and sores. Civilization has broken 
and enslaved man's spirit. It has bent and twisted and 
deformed his body. It has surrounded him with dis- 
order and desolation. It has filled him with disease, and 
covered him with all manner of ugliness. It has organ- 
ized the means of his oppression and has called it busi- 
ness. It has taught him to be ashamed of that which 
was his glory, and to honor that which should be his 



396 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

shame— and the CTilmination of capitalism is the cul- 
mination of this career of disaster to the artistic qual- 
ities and longings of the race. 

Socialism, on the other hand, will give the fullest ex- 
pression to the social ideals of the real artist. 

517. Capitalism Doing Its Best.— Capitalism is not 
to be blamed for extending its maxims and its methods 
to the art which its patronage makes possible. The 
Chicago pork packers and grain speculators are giving 
the best they have when they carry the stock yards and 
the Board of Trade into the Art Institute. The artist 
who longs for an art that is unknown at the Institute, 
the free and glad expression of a life both free and 
glad, can never be heard on the subject of beauty until 
the artist's social instincts shall not only enter the In- 
stitute, but enter every place of toil and trade.^^ 

518. Strength and Beauty.— As a thing of utility a 
dress is strong. As a thing of art, it is a thing of beauty. 
But the dress is not two things, one strong and the 
other beautiful. It is one thing, and it is both strong 

13. "Artistic tastes will not be gratified on a large scale until 
the utility of art exceeds its cost. Unartistic men control industrial 
organizations, the churches, and public affairs, because they are more 
active, and while they are in control churches, railroad stations and 
public buildings will be constructed with but little regard to their looks. 
All this would be changed if artistic and literary ideals promoted 
activity. The men they influence would then control social and indus- 
trial organizations and could determine the form of buildings and other 
objects, if the net gain of their activity to society was gi'eater than 
the additional cost of making their environment pleasing. Under pres- 
ent conditions, however, art is associated with leisure and is confined 
to galleries and museums, which ordinary people see only on holidays. 
It is thus sought chiefly by the inactive and overfed, who seek a relief 
from monotony by sensory stimulations. Pleasures that do not promote 
adjustment are detrimental, and those who indulge in them are sure 
to be eliminated. We are thus breeding against art and not in its 
favor. The classes affected by it are so differentiated from the racial 
standards that they cease to meet the conditions on which survival 
depends. They become sterilized and leave the world to those who 
adhere more fully to racial standards. Artists and writers, therefore, 
are made at the present time by education and conversion, but not 
by breedmg. So long as this situation continues, there can be little 
net progress in art. Each new generation of artists rises out of the 
same inartistic conditions, develops in the same way, and dies out by 
gradual extinction."— Patten : Development of English Thought, p. 386. 



Chap. XXIX THE FINE ARTS 39T 

and beautiful. It is absurd to think tbat the social 
instinct of the artist could fix its form and its color, 
while greed for gain could fix its comfort and its 
strength. Now greed fixes both. Under Socialism the 
social instinct of the artist will be the master of all. 
That is why the real artist is always a Socialist.^^ 

519, Artists Are Socialists.— Plato, John of Patmos, 
Augustine, More and Bellamy, and every other dreamer 
who has tried to give a literary picture of a higher 
life for man, has found that art could not even dream of 
a better life, and leave as any share of its picture the 
pitiless penury and distress of capitalism. Drummond 
mentions that John saw a city ^* without a church." 

14. "We have seen that the essential condition of all art is the 
psychic power of forming ideals. Their execution is certain to follow 
their creation. It has often been remarked that persons of an artistic 
turn of mind often become, especially in later life, social reformers, 
and the examples of Ruskin, William Morris, Howells, Bellamy, and 
others are brought forward. I once heard a lecturer on Sociology at a 
university lay great emphasis on this fact before his class, and he 
treated it simply as a remarkable and apparently inexplicable coinci- 
dence. This led me to reflect upon it, but the explanation was not far 
to seek. An artist, or art critic, like Ruskin, possesses a mind specially 
constituted for seeing ideals in nature. Such a mind instantly detects 
the defects in everything observed and unconsciously supplies the 
missing parts. This faculty is general, and need not be confined to 
human features, to architectural designs, to statues, portraits and 
landscapes. It may take any direction. After a life engaged in the 
search of ideals in the world of material thmgs, the mind often grows 
more serious and is more and more sympathetic. It lays more stress on 
moral defects, and in the most natural way conceivable it proceeds to 
form ethical and social ideals by the same process that it has always 
formed esthetic ideals. The defectiveness of the social state in per- 
mitting so much suffering is vividly represented, and the image of an 
ideal society in which this would be prevented spontaneously arises in 
the mind. Instinctively, too, the born artist now becomes a social 
artist, proceeds to construct such an ideal society, and we have a great 
array of Utopias, and Arcadias, and Altrureas. * * * To indulge in 
an apparent hyperbole, the moral and social reformer, nay, the social 
and political agitator or even fanatic, provided he be sincere and not 
a self-seeker, exercise the same function as the poet, the sculptor, and 
the painter, and out of all these fields of art, even from that of music, 
there have been recruited, in this perfectly natural and legitimate way, 
philanthropists, humanitarians, socialists, idealists, religious, economic 
and social reformers. The list is large, but as representative types, be- 
sides those already mentioned, we may properly name Victor Hugo, 
Tolstoi, Wagner, Millet, S^vinburne and George Eliot.*^— Ward : Pure 
Sdciology, pp. 83-84. 



398 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

But it was also without a bank, a real estate office or a 
labor market, and in his city the fixed condition of 
every service was ^ ^ to every one according as his work 
is."^^ "Wagner in music, Millet among the painters, 
Morris, Euskin, Carlyle, Zola, Hugo, Dickens and 
Burns among the singers of songs and the tellers of 
stories, and the whole number of those who, with them, 
have given to the world the art it has, have succeeded 
in doing so only as they have defied and deserted the 
spirit of capitalism, and have caught the social instinct 
which under Socialism will make the whole earth a 
place of beauty and every daily task of life an ex- 
pression of its joy. 

520. Summary.— 1. Capitalism, through the pov- 
erty which it causes, destroys the joy of life on which 
art depends for its existence. 

2. Capitalism, through the relations of mastery and 
servitude which the wage system enforces, prevents the 
fullness of liberty, without which no life can freely ex- 
press itself, and so makes real art impossible. 

3. Capitalism, through its patronage of art, humili- 
ates the artist and degrades his work. 

4. Capitalism monopolizes the works of art, so 
that that which should be the joy of all is made the 
misunderstood and unappreciated curiosity of the few. 

5. Capitalism, because of the lack of leisure, and 
cost of travel under its rule, withholds from the masses 
any opportunity to even see the most beautiful in na- 
ture or to cultivate the taste to understand or the skill 
to create real art. 

6. Socialism will restore the joy of life, by making 
certain the means of life for all, so far as poverty or 
the fear of poverty is able to make life miserable. 

7. Socialism will abolish the relations of mastery 

15. Revelation: XXII., 12. (New version). 



Chap. XXIX THE FINE ARTS 399 

and servitude. Under Socialism the superintendent 
will be a public servant, answerable to those at work 
under his direction, not to a private boss answerable to 
a non-resident stockholder. Socialism will make all 
men free, and so with liberty will make possible the art 
which waits for liberty. 

8. Under Socialism the artist will need the patron- 
age of no one, and his products cannot be monopolized 
by the few, and the many will have both the leisure 
and the means for study, travel and for art production. 

9. Under Socialism the motive and the instincts of 
the artist will rule the world, and every highway, for- 
est, field, household, workshop, or market place will 
be a work of art and so an object of beauty, a minister 
to the joy of life. 

10. Under Socialism it will not only be true, as now, 
that artists will be Socialists, but then the artisans 
will be artists also. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What is the difference between the industrial arts and the fine 
arts ? 

2. Which was first to come into existence? 

3. Give an account of the development of speech, first in music 
and poetry, and afterward in prose. What of the most ancient writings ? 

4. What is the purpose of art, in the motive which moves the 
artist to produce his work? What of sex lines as the occasion for the 
work of the early artists? 

5. W'hat of the art instinct as a factor in the development of the 
human form? 

6. Show that all art has some direct relation to the emotions of the 
heart. Why is there no art where there is no love? Give relations of 
great art to great life. 

7. How does capitalism destroy the joy of life? What of toilers 
and traders? What of masters in their relations to each other? 

8. How does the lack of means and leisure affect art for those who 
are artists, and those who would enjoy art? What of the rich man's 
appreciation of art? 

9. Does art depend upon capitalistic patronage ? What is the effect 
of such patronage? On the general public? On the artist? What of 
the prize winning artist ? Under it, what becomes of the best art ? 

10. How does capitalism destroy natural beauty? How does it 
prevent the many from enjoying the best in nature? 

11. What of the fashions ? Their relation to capitalism and to art? 
What of the human form? 



400 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

12. Can the things of beauty and the things of utility be separated 
and the artist's motive rule in one place and the commercial instincts 
rule in the other? 

13. How would Socialism affect art, as to the joy of life? As to 
means and the leisure for the production and the enjoyment of art? 
As to the liberty which would make the artist free to produce the best 
that is in him? As to the monopoly of the products of art? As to 
fashions? As to natural beauty and the world's wonders? 

14. What has been true of all artistic efforts to make a literary 
picture of a higher life for man? 

15. Why are artists Socialists? 



CHAPTER XXX 

RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 

521. The Thinking Animal.— The word man is de- 
rived from an old term which meant '^to think.'' Man 
is the animal that thinks. Thinking involves the 
process of comparing things in order to discover their 
relations. Instinct is an impulse to act in some given 
way without consciously thinking about the action. In- 
stinct is believed to be an inheritance from the experi- 
ence of one's ancestors. The ability to think is called 
reason. It is said that man is governed by reason and 
animals by instinct. It is a disputed question whether 
some animals do not reason. It is not disputed that 
some men have only the smallest power to do so. It is 
certain that at the beginning of man's career, man, the 
thinking animal, must have been governed by his in- 
stincts. 

522. Oldest Instincts.— The long centuries of experi- 
ence, during which his animal ancestry had developed 
his instincts, had been given to the struggle for exist- 
ence, and just as the ruling impulse, the instinct, of a 
fledgling is to try its wings in flight, so the ruling im- 
pulse, the race instinct of man at the beginning of his 

401 



402 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

career as man, was to use all his powers in this strug- 
gle for existence. 

The struggle had been with heat and cold, with hun- 
ger and disease with strangers and with beasts of prey. 
These, then, were his foes and the instinct, the ruling 
impulse of his life, was to be at war with them. 

523. Moving and Motionless— Living and Dead.— 
It is impossible to understand how the first discovery, 
the result of self-directed reflection, could have been 
anything other than that some things move and some 
things do not move. He stood by the side of beasts or 
men. While living they moved. When dead they were 
motionless. His earliest classification must have been 
the moving and the motionless, the living and the dead.^ 

Men still speak of ^^dead matter" and * living 
water. ' ' Matter is not dead in the sense it was former- 
ly supposed to be, and flowing streams do not live as 
they were understood to live when the expression ' ' liv- 
ing water ' ^ was given to our forms of speech. 

To the first thinkers, the sun and the moon and the 
stars were seen to be in motion, and comparison with 
living things taught them to believe that these heaven- 
ly bodies were themselves alive. The trees grew, the 
rivers flowed, the fruits ripened, the clouds crossed the 
skies and broke into the noise and fury of the storm. 
The winds kissed man's face, sung in the hanging 
branches, and shrieked in the winter's blast. All these 
were regarded as living things, for life alone gave mo- 
tion. How great and marvelous the life which moved 
the cataract or whose voice was the thunder or whose 
breath was the storm. 

524. The Breath of Life.— When beasts or men no 
longer breathed, they were seen to die. Comparison of 
living things with those that did not live taught them 

1. Clodd: Childhood of the World, p. 18. 



Chap. XXX RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 403 

that to breathe was to live, and to lose one's breath was 
at once to die. Gust and ghost are different ways of 
spelling the same word. Both mean the same thing.^ 
In all growing, moving things they understood there 
was a ghost, a spirit, life. With all these things, as 
man came to know them, he was struggling to preserve 
his own life. He thought of these things as having life 
and with life he understood them also to possess all the 
hopes and fears, the hunger and despair which he found 
in his own life's experience. 

525. The Origin of Worship.— In his struggle for 
existence he could not have been very long in making 
the discovery that there were things which by his 
strength he could control, and other things from which 
he must escape, or whose good will he must secure or 
else be overcome by them. Again, the classification 
was natural and easy. The things of which he was 
master were one class and the things which were his 
masters made up another class. As he attributed to 
all the things with which he struggled the qualities of 
his own mind, he soon learned to seek the good will 
of all things stronger than himself in forest, field and 
storm or sky, by offering the same services for their 
good will which he would be ready to accept from 
some life inferior to his own. 

He fought with whatever force he thought to be 
less than his own. He surrendered to whatever force 
he could see no way to overcome. What he could whip 
he whipped, and what he could not whip he worshipped. 

526. Fetishism— The Worship of Things.— The 
earliest form of worship, and this is true everywhere 
and of all the races of mankind, was Fetishism.^ It 
means the worship of things, each separate thing by it- 
self. 

2. Clodd: Childhood of the World, p. 21. 

3. Clodd: Childhood of the World, p. 22. 



404 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

527. Polytheism— Many Masters of Groups of 

Things.— The first advance in the development of re- 
ligion was made when man, by the process again of 
the comparison of things, discovered that all trees of 
any particular kind grew and blossomed and brought 
to maturity their nuts and fruits in the same manner.^ 
All the streams seemed to be moving alike. The water- 
falls broke into spray of the same kind, they sang the 
same songs, and hung in the mists above them the same 
rainbow everywhere. It was an easy step to under- 
stand that the same spirit was in them all. Each sep- 
arate thing now ceased to be a god, and each class of 
things became the subject of its own particular divin- 
ity. Before, the storm itself was a god, but now they 
said, '^He rides upon the storm.'' 

This form of worship is called polytheism (many 
gods), and under it worship passed from the worship 
of things to the worship of the masters of many things. 

528. One God and One Evil Spirit— Masters of All. 
—The next step, now that it has been taken, seems 
most natural and easy. But we are looking at the 
problem with the conclusions of the thought of many 
centuries as the common thought and speech made fa- 
miliar to us from the earliest moments of our childhood. 
The process of comparison by which it could be discov- 
ered that there were characteristics in the movements 
and products of all things which indicated that there 
was one master of all things, instead of many masters 
of many things, was not an easy step to take. 

The difference between the harvest and the plagues 
which destroyed the harvests, between doves and 
snakes, between food and poison, between the strength 
of youth and the pestilence that ^^walkethat noonday" 
was so great and so difficult of explanation, if both 
were the action of the same Great Spirit, that man was 

4. Clodd: Childhood of the World, p, 25. 



Chap. XXX RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 405 

unable to make the passage from polytheism to mono- 
theism—from many gods to one god— except it be be- 
lieved that the Great Spirit of all was at war with a 
lesser and malignant spirit and that in the fortunes of 
this warfare of the gods, whenever evil befell him, 
either it was because of the wrath of the Great Spirit 
or the victim of misfortune had been caught in the 
enemy's country. 

The beginning of this worship of one God of all 
good spirits and the execration of the one malignant 
master of all minor devils, brings us to the closing- 
years of barbarism and to the opening centuries of civ- 
ilization with its written records and its sacred books 
and to the beginning of the written story of the further 
development of religion, 

529. Common Grounds of Scholarship of All Creeds. 
—It is not within the scope of this discussion to enter 
upon any of the questions of dispute regarding the au- 
thority of the sacred writings or of the ecclesiastical 
organizations. The purpose of this chapter will not 
require us to go outside of the field where all that is 
stated is admitted to be true by the best scholarship of 
all the creeds and by the creedless scholarship as well. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to call attention to 
the way in which religion is now monopolized and de- 
based by the rule of capitalism. If it is true that a 
great factor in the life of man which has come with him 
from the beginning and has had so large a share in 
the processes of his development is debased by capital- 
ism and would be liberated, ennobled and made a thou- 
sand-fold more effective under Socialism, then all alike 
should swing wide their doors to welcome this new fac- 
tor in the life of man. 

530. The Evolution of Religion.— It has been seen 
in Chapter III that at the beginning of the story of 
man's life on earth he was entirely without organiza- 



400 ^ CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

tion.''^ Ignorant of the nature of his surroundings, 
guided by the instincts of his animal ancestry, afraid 
of each separate thing which had the power to harm 
him, his fears evolved a faith which also was without 
organization. Having no conception of any established 
relations between himself and his fellows, it was impos- 
sible that he should think of such relations between the 
things he worshipped. 

531. Beginnings of Organization.— But as organiza- 
tion advanced among men and they built their camps 
together, kept a common fire, organized fishing com- 
panies, hunted and cultivated the fields and herded the 
flocks together, it became alike impossible that the or- 
ganization which they were able to develop among 
themselves they should continue forever to think im- 
possible among the gods. Hence, as the chief began to 
appear among men, the master of gods came to be 
thought of among the gods. 

532. Cannibalism.— Under fetish worship, cannibal- 
ism was the most natural thing to come into existence. 
If some one man became mightier than many others 
and each thing had life, great or small, according to its 
strength, then great warriors were great gods and 'Ho 
drink their blood and to eat their flesh'' was to ab- 
sorb the divinity of the captured warrior. This prac- 
tice and this creed was found among all races of men 
and in all lands in the earlier stages of the race life.^ 
It shows why, in human sacrifices, the strongest and the 
most beautiful were required for the offering and why, 
when animals were at last substituted for men, the of- 
fering had to be spotless and the choicest of the flock. 

533. The Families of Gods.— The fact that all rivers 
had certain qualities in common was not realized by 

5. See Chapter IV. 

6. Morgan: Ancient Society, 



Chap XXX RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 407 

men before organization among themselves had made 
its appearance. When they passed from the worship 
of things to the worship of the masters of things, mas- 
tery was a sort of democratic function, exercised by 
groups of men, who were themselves kinsmen. The 
new gods were members of the family of the gods and 
at the first exercised their powers after the manner of 
the primeval groups of savages who were working 
their way into the institutions of earlier barbarism. 

534. The Gods of War.— The leisure class began to 
appear with the organization of religion, the univer- 
sality of inter-tribal wars and with the beginning of 
slavery. The wars were between the gods as well as 
between the tribes. The tribes which were victorious 
were believed to have won in battle because the gods 
of the victors had overcome and subdued the gods of 
the vanquished. It is believed that the supposed share 
which the gods had in these tribal wars was no small 
factor in effecting the change from the massacre to the 
enslavement of those beaten in battle.''' 

535. Religion and Slavery.— The relation of this 
form of religion to slavery is better seen in the life of 
ancient Eome than anywhere else, because here the 
military life which created the economic demand for 
slaves, the worship of the many gods of polytheism and 
slavery, as a method of industry, all reached their high- 
est development. 

While previous world powers had destroyed the 
gods and forbidden the religions of the conquered peo- 
ples, Eome captured the images and carried the gods 
captive to the Eoman Pantheon, a temple for all the 
gods, and so reinforced the captivity of the conquered 
countries by the captivity of their gods. Eome became 
also the patron of the conquered gods and provided sup- 
port for the priests who ministered unto them and in 

7. J. K. Ingi^am: History of Slavery, p. 8. 



408 CURRENT PROBLEMS Pabt V 

this way effected an alliance with the trusted religious 
teachers of conquered peoples and so was able to use 
the religion of a conquered tribe to enforce its slavery.^ 

536. The Jews, the Romans and the Tribal Gods.— 
The Jews and Eomans could never come to an under- 
standing because the Jews had no god which the Ro- 
mans were able to make a captive.^ 

As long as the petty tribal life lasted and the petty 
tribal wars continued, the gods were petty tribal gods 
engaged in petty tribal matters. 

537. The One Military Master and the One God.— 
In tracing the story of the development of religion in 
Rome, it is seen that just as the ancient democracy of 
the original tribes developed into the great political 
power, which, on its industrial side, was a slave power, 
and, in the method of its administration, was a military 
power, so the conception of the gods changed from the 
family of quarreling gods to the absolutism of the one 
military master. The European mind was never able 
to think of one God ruling all the heavens and the earth, 
until after all Europe had felt the power of one emperor 
ruling all the world. 

It was only alter the world power had been devel- 
oped and enforced for centuries and all men were com- 
pelled to submit to a central human power, that the idea 
of the one universal and unseen God was able to strong- 
ly move the minds of men. It was after the ''ends of 
the earth ' ' and the ' ' Isles of the Sea ' ' had paid tribute 
to Rome that the creed of Abraham became the faith of 
the world, and then only by keeping a place for evil 
spirits in order to explain the plague and famine which 

8. J. K. Ingram: History of Slavery, p. 8. 

9. "When Pompey first conquered the Jews and forced his way 
into their temple, he reported that it was empty and their secret rites 
unmeaning." See Tacitus: History, 5, 9. He could not conceive of a 
god which he could not find and carry away by force of arms, after he 
had captured his temple. 



Chap. XXX RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 409 

it was thought could not come to a devout people, ex- 
cept a devil be the bearer of them. 

538. The Ancient Priesthood.— The ancient priest- 
hood gathered to itself all the functions of the leisure 
and professional classes. The world was divided into 
soldiers and slaves. The priest ranked with the soldier. 
In youth the priest was the soldier's teacher, in sick- 
ness his physician, in war his counselor and soothsayer, 
and in peace his law-giver. 

539. The Law of Growth.— A tree grows whether it 
will or not, and by a process of natural selection and 
the survival of the best adapted, it may improve as the 
centuries pass. But the hand of man may quicken the 
process of improvement. Under his conscious selec- 
tion and training, plants, animals and men improve, 
not by the overriding of the natural order, but by 
learning it and the more completely complying with 
the natural law of life.^^ 

540. Great Services of the Church.— It would be ab- 
surd as well as untrue to deny or to belittle the great 
service of ecclesiastical orders during the long years 
since soldiers have been trying to conquer the world to 
the authority of a single political power and the mis- 
sionaries have been striving to convert the world to a 
single religion. 

During the centuries of disorder which followed the 
collapse of ancient European civilization, the church 
preserved from utter loss the literature, the agricul- 

10. No economist of reputation at the present day would attempt 
to ignore the ethical aspects of an institution, as might have been 
done fifty years ago. Instead of asserting the complete independence 
of economics and ethics, the modern economist, whether individualist 
or Socialist, would insist on the close connection between the two 
sciences. He would say that nothing can be economically beneficial 
which was ethically bad, because such economic benefits could only be 
transitory. He would insist with equal force that nothing could be 
ethically good which was economically disastrous, because in this ease 
also destruction must ensue with equal certainty." — ^Hadley: Eco- 
nomics, pp. 22-23. 



410 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

ture, the horticulture, the learning, the medicine and 
the law of the older order. For many centuries her 
sanctuary was the only refuge and her voice the only 
authority strong enough to enforce obedience. But un- 
der slavery, her temples were patronized and her priest- 
hood supported by the masters, and the priesthood bid 
the slave be content and to submit. Under serfdom, the 
place of worship was at the mercy of the lords, and 
the master at the altar bid the master of spear and 
lance to treat the rebellious serfs ^4ike mad dogs.'' 
Under the wage system the form of the church has 
largely changed with the form of industrial organiza- 
tion. The reformation of the church everywhere ac- 
companied the collapse of feudalism.^^ 

541. The Unity of All Nature.— The developments 
of modern life have separated the professions of law, 
medicine and of the teacher from the priesthood. The 
marvelous modern developments in invention and com- 
merce have been accompanied by the microscope, the 
telescope, the library and the laboratory. The contra- 
dictions in nature, which made difficult the belief in a 
single universal life in all things, with a common life 
purpose running through all things, have been studied 
in the presence of the new worlds which these instru- 
ments have revealed. Under scientific tests which men 

11. 'To trace the influence of the spiritual life in individual and 
social development would be as easy as it is unnecessary. What is 
generally forgotten, however, and what it is needful to emphasize again 
and again, is not only that the content of the conception of morality 
is a social product, but also that amid the complex social influences that 
co-operated to produce it, the economic factors have often been of 
chief significance — that pure ethical or religious idealism has made itself 
felt only within the limitations of existing economic conditions. The 
material, as we have seen, has almost always preceded the ethical. 
Individual actions, like social actions, possessed a material significance 
long before they acquired an ethical meaning. * * * Since the mate- 
rial precedes the ethical, it will not surprise us to learn that the mate- 
rial conditions of society — that is, in the widest sense, the economic 
conditions — continually modify the content of the ethical conception. 
* * * Men are what conditions make them, and ethical ideals are not 
exempt from the same inexorable law of environment." — Seligman: The 
Economic Interpretation of History, pp. 126 " * * 28. 



Chap. XXX RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 411 

'^have seen with their eyes and handled with their 
hands,'' the unity of all nature has been established. 
It is no longer thought by anyone of learning that one 
law rules over things which gladden the world and an- 
other law over the things of bitterness and disaster. It 
is now known that this earth ' ' is not a kingdom divided 
against itself. ' ' Its laws are known to be unchanging, 
unfailing, all-powerful and everywhere and always 
present. Obedience to the laws which so encompass 
and control all life is everywhere proclaimed as the law 
of life. 

542. The Highest Religion.— The inventor, the dis- 
coverer, the builder, the artist, the artisan, the moral- 
ist, the statesman and the law-giver are alike helpless 
except as they learn and obey these laws. Eeligion 
is meaningless except as it is grounded in them and is 
the interpretation of them. "Whoever learns and tells 
again great nature 's secrets is her priest,^^ and whoever 
is able to give her the service of his life, in obedience 
to her laws, is the certain recipient of her gifts in the 
same abundance as is his service.^^ 

543. The Order of Advance.— When, in his infancy 
and his ignorance, man worshipped each separate ob- 
ject which lay about him, he was his own teacher, priest 
and king. When organization came and men worked 
and fought in groups for the mastery over other men, 
the gods were thought to be in groups and the tribes 
gave ''to the great medicine man" of the time the in- 
termediary duties of keeping the peace between gods 

12. "A war hero supposes a barbarous condition of tbe race; and 
when all shall be civilized, they who know and love the most shall be 
be held to be the greatest and the best." — Bishop Spaulding: Education 
and the Higher Life, p. 171. 

13. "For the conservation and perfection of social relations, and 
for the realization of ideals, the social mind creates institutions. * * * 
Institutions react for good or ill upon all social functions, and especially 
upon the supreme social function, the development of personality." — 
Giddings: Theory of Socialization, Syllabus, p. 33. 



412 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

and men— but woe to the priest who ^^ prophesied not 
good things for my lord. ' ' 

When slavery and war possessed the earth, the forms 
of religion conformed to the new forms of the industrial 
life, and the master of the slave camp was master of 
the altar as well as commander of the armies. 

When serfdom came, the lords of the castle and of 
the cathedral had their interests in common and against 
the serfs. When the wage system came, the ecclesias- 
tical forms shifted to again suit the limited democracy 
of early capitalism and now again both school and 
church conform to the necessities of most modern plu- 
tocracy.^^ 

14. "Thus the economic interpretation of history, correctly under- 
stood, does not in the least seek to deny or to minimize the importance of 
ethical and spiritual forces in history. It only emphasizes the domain 
within which the ethical forces can at any particular time act with 
success. To sound the praises of mercy and love to a band of marauding 
savages would be futile; but when the old conditions of warfare are no 
longer really needed for self-defense, the moral teacher can do a gi-eat 
work in introducing more civilized practices, which shall be in harmony 
with the real needs of the new society. It is always on the border line 
of the transition from the old social necessity to the new social conve- 
nience that the ethical reformer makes his influence felt. With the per- 
petual change in human conditions there is always some kind of a 
border line, and thus always the need of the moral teacher, to point 
out the higher ideal and the path of progress. Unless the social con- 
ditions, however, are ripe for the change, the demand of the ethical 
reformer will be fruitless. Only if the conditions are ripe will the re- 
form be effected. 

"The moral ideals are thus continually in the forefront of the 
contest for progress. The ethical teacher is the scout and the van- 
guard of society; but he will be followed only if he enjoys the confi- 
dence of the people, and the real battle will be fought by the main body 
of social forces, amid which the economic conditions are in last resort 
so often decisive. There is a moral growth in society, as well as in 
the individual. The more civilized the society, the more ethical its 
mode of life. But to become more civilized, to permit the moral ideals 
to percolate through continually lower strata of the population, we must 
have an economic basis to render it possible. With every improvement 
in the material condition of the great mass of the population there will 
be an opportunity for the unfolding of a higher moral life; but not un- 
til the economic conditions of society become far more ideal will 
the ethical development of the individual have a free field for limitless 
progress. Only then will it be possible to neglect the economic factor, 
which may thenceforward be considered as a constant; only then will 
the economic interpretation of history become a matter for archaeoio 
gists rather than for historians." — Seligman: The Economic Inter- 
pretation of History, pp. 130-2. See Chapter II. 



Chap. XXX RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 413 

544. Capitalism and Religion— The Right to Think. 

—Man is the animal that thinks. Under capitalism, it 
is propsed that he shall think along only such lines as 
will forever lead him to give up the products of his 
unpaid labor for the free use of those who labor not 
and then only do such thinking as he can while ex- 
hausting all the physical powers of his life in produc- 
ing wealth which he cannot have for his own or his 
family ^s use. 

545. Capitalism limits the activity of the religious 
instincts to nights and Sundays for those who toil and 
then provides for them, if at all, under conditions 
where, poorly fed, poorly clothed and outworn with 
toil, the worker and worshipper is made to feel the 
humiliation of his helpless dependence, even more bit- 
terly at the altar than at the workshop. Is it any won- 
der that religion plays so small a part in the life of 
the average workingman?^^ 

546. The Mastery of Wealth.— This modern plu- 
tocracy rules the church not so much by purposely cor- 
rupting the church as because the church is dependent 
for its support on the few who are able to support her, 
but will do so only so long as the service of the church 
is consistent with the economic interests of the mas- 
ters.i^ 

In spite' of itself the modern church is a respecter of 
persons. In spite of itself its message and its service 
is made to serve mankind so far only as is possible 
with no offense to those who with one hand rob the 
race and with the other support and control the 
agencies supposed to exist for the special service of 
the poor. 

547. The Religious Teacher and His Training.— Not 

15. "We must first secure a livelihood and then practice virtue."— 
Aristotle, quoted by Hobson: Imperialism, p. 97. 

16. "All for ourselves and nothing for other people seems in every 
age of the world to have been the vile maxim of the masters of man- 
kind.' — ^Adam Smith; quoted by Davidson: Annals of Toil, p. 112. 



414 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

only is the church dependent on the masters for its 
support, but the pastors and teachers are largely edu- 
cated at the expense of these same masters, and while 
the highest motives may suggest these expenditures 
and no pressure of any conscious sort be exerted by the 
benefactor of these schools, it is impossible for teach- 
ers of religion to come to their positions as teachers at 
the expense of these masters of the market and not be 
strongly, if unconsciously, influenced to look with mild 
censure, if not approval on the crimes of the market 
which have made possible the endowment of the 
schools. 

548. .Work and Worship.— Work and worship 
cannot be characteristic of the common life so long as 
great wealth delivers the few from the responsibility of 
self-support and drives the many to overwork, to long 
hours, to evil associations, to unsanitary conditions, to 
ignorance and to the conscious bearing of great wrongs 
at the hands of the very people whom the church ^^ de- 
lights to honor. ' ' 

549. The Slaughter of Intelligence.— Intelligence, 
not ignorance, is the handmaid of religion. The really 
religious are ruled by their understanding, not by their 
superstitions. Prejudice is not piety. A refusal to 
think is no proof of holiness. Inability to think is in- 
ability to worship. No other thing in the life of the 
race has so smitten the common life with personal de- 
pendence and mental helplessness as modern capital- 
ism in its most modern form. Its attack on the intelli- 
gence and self-possession of the common people is most 
destructive of any rational faith. It is itself the very 
essence of irreligion. 

550. Socialism and Religion.— Socialists make no 
attack on religion. They make no attack on the church. 
The Socialists' proposals are the only economic pro- 
posals ever made not in outright violation of the prin- 
ciples of religion. 

551. Eeligious Convictions a Private Matter.— 



Chap. XXX RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 413 

While the Socialists contend that religion is a private 
matter with which it is not their purpose in any way 
to interfere, nevertheless the proposals of the Socialists 
will deliver society from many things which are in- 
herent in capitalism and are the greatest foes of re- 
ligion. Mastery and servitude are forbidden by reli- 
gion. They are inherent in capitalism. They will be 
impossible under Socialism. 

552. Brotherhood.— Brotherhood is commanded by 
religion. It is impossible under capitalism.^''' It will be 
inevitable under Socialism. When men cease to rob 
each other in the market they will enter easily and 
surely into the natural relations of real brothers. Jus- 
tice between man and man is commanded by religion. 
Capitalism cannot exist without injustice. Its maxim 
is ' ^ Every man for himself. ' ' The struggle for Social- 
ism is a struggle for justice in economic relations.^^ 

553. Supporting the Church.— The church builds 
her cathedrals and palaces and extends her enterprises 
to the ends of the earth. But her most splendid archi- 
tecture is but a makeshift and her world-wide enter- 
prises a small affair as compared with what the willing 
hands of willing workers would do for the churches of 
their choice were the poor, who even now so largely 
support the churches which the masters so largely rule, 

17. "Our national religion is the performance of churcli cere- 
monies, and preaching of soporific truths (or untruths) to keep the 
mob quietly at work while we amuse ourselves." — ^Ruskin, quoted by 
Kidd: Social Evolution, p. 89. 

"No individual competitor can lay down the rules of the combat. 
No individual can safely choose the higher plane so long as his oppo- 
nent is at liberty to fight on a lower." — Webb : Problems of Modern In- 
dustry, p. 249. 

18. "How far is it possible to open up to all the material means 
of a refined and noble life ? * « * Much has been said of the physical 
sufferings and ill-health caused by over-crowded dwellings, but the 
mental and moral ill-health due to them are greater evils still. With 
better house room and better food, with less hard work and more leisure, 
the great mass of our people would have the power of leading a life 
quite unlike that which they must lead now, a life far higher and far 
more noble." — Marshall: Present Position of Economics, pp. 54-7. 



416 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

once given for their own disposal the total products of 
their toil. 

554. Boundless Opportunity.— Under Socialism the 
library, the laboratory, the university, the service of 
the church the opportunity to study and to understand 
and that for all the years of youth and for long hours of 
every day throughout one's lifetime, without the cor- 
ruption of mastery or the humiliation of servitude of 
any form will at last be realized for all. 

555. Summary.— 1. Capitalism is the foe of reli- 
gion. This is true for the following reasons: 

(a) It enforces mastery and servitude in violation 
of the requirements of brotherhood. 

(b) It makes inevitable such ignorance and dis- 
order among its victims as makes most difficult if not 
impossible any rational religious activity. 

(c) It robs the masses of both time and strength for 
religious duties. 

(d) It corrupts morals by enforcing in the shop and 
market business maxims utterly at variance with the 
precepts of all the great religions. 

(e) It corrupts the life of the people by making the 
livelihood of the teachers of religion depend on the 
good will of those whose personal profits depend upon 
the betrayal of the common good. 

2. Socialism is neither religious nor irreligious, but 
it will in no way interfere with the religion of any, 
while it will bring about such conditions in the shop 
and market as will make possible the greatest religious 
activity of all those who choose to be religious. This is 
true for the following reasons : 

(a) It will abolish mastery and servitude in the 
shop and market ; the betrayal of a brother for the sake 
of a living will never again be necessary. 

(b) Involuntary ignorance and the resulting con- 
ditions of disorder will disappear. 



Chap. XXX RELIGION AND SOCIALISM - 417 

(c) There will be time and strength for all for any 
desirable undertaking aside from earning a living. 
There will be time and strength for religious purposes. 

(d) All men will earn their living under a system 
which will not itself exist in violation of the precepts 
of religion. 

(e) No teacher of religion will need to be the per- 
sonal dependent of those more fortunate than himself. 

(f ) The resources of all the people will be sufficient 
to enable them at once to abolish the religious beggar 
and, from ample stores, provide for all the needs of 
the most ambitious undertakings of the church. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What was the original meaning of the word man? What is 
meant by instinct ? What is thought to be the origin of the instincts ? 

2. What was man's first guide and why was he, by his instinctsj 
at war with his surroundings-? 

3. What is thinking? What was man's first general classification 
of the things he compared? Why do you think so? 

4. Why should he think all moving things to be alive? What did 
he first worship? Why would he do so? 

5. What was the first advance in religion? By what process did 
men pass from worship of the things to the worship of the masters of 
things ? 

6. Why was the passage from the worship of many gods to the 
worship of one God hard to make? In what way did men account 
for the seeming contradictions in nature after accepting the belief in one 
God? 

7. While fetishism, the worship of things, was the prevailing relig- 
ion, what about the forms of social organization? 

8. In what way was religion changed when men had come to live 
in organized tribes and to have chiefs among them? 

9. In what way was the worship of many gods related to slavery ? 

10. When the absolutism of the Roman military government had 
been established, what change took place in the worship of the gods ? 
Why could not the change have taken place before? 

11. What happened to the church everywhere on the collapse of 
feudalism ? 

12. Name some of the great services which ecclesiastical organiza- 
tions have rendered to society. 

13. When did the leism-e class and the priestly orders first 
appear ? 

14. When slavery and war everywhere divided the world between 
soldiers and slaves, to which side did the priest of the ancient religions 
belong ? 

15. How was the unity of all nature at last established? \Yh8it 
now is known to be the law of life? 

16. In what ways does capitalism affect the church? 

17. Why and how will Socialism greatly benefit religion? 



CHAPTER XXXr 

EDUCATION AND SOCIALISM 

556. The Old Education.— Education may be said 
to be tbe discovery and application of those laws of life 
which make for man's improvement.^ 

Under the old order of things the education of man 
was a priestly function. The priesthood taught the 
slaves submission, taught the soldier obedience, and ex- 
plained their relations of dependence and all misery 
as the divine order of things, bitter to endure, but nec- 
essary in order to escape greater woes in this life or for 
man's probation and training for the world to come. 

557. The Business Education.— In the separation of 
education from the functions of the church, the rise of 
modem capitalism was the chief factor.^ The idea of 

1. "The ideal of the Prussian National System is given shortly as 
'the harmonious and equitable evolution of the human powers'; at more 
length, in the words of Stein, 'by a method based on the nature of the 
mind, every power of the soul to be unfolded, every crude principle of 
life stirred up and nourished, all one-sided culture avoided, and the 
impulses on which the strength and worth of men rests, carefully 
attended to." — Bain: Education as a Science, p. 1; and Donaldson: 
Lectures on Education, p. 38. 

2. "Education did not have a complete and beautiful development. 
It was unworthily enslaved to other interests, and both in theory and 

418 



Chap. XXXI EDUCATION AND SOCIALISM 419 

an improved man by the process of general education 
which was characteristic of the old education has been 
greatly modified by the demand for such special train- 
ing as will best prepare the student for such a business 
career. 

558. The New Education.— The most modern edu- 
cational movement, commonly mentioned as ^ ^ The New 
Education, '^ is an effort, with the equipment which 
modem science has provided, to once more return to 
the old idea that the purpose of education shall be to 
produce the greatest strength of mind, body, character, 
or, in other words, to improve the life and add to its 
naturalness and its joy.^ 

559. A Better Market or a Better Life.— But the 
new educator is not unlike the old priest in at least the 
one particular that the school is as completely under 
the control of whatever is most dominant in society as 



practice it showed its servile condition." — Painter: History of Educa- 
tion, p. 117, Chapter "Education Before the Reformation." 

3. "So that while the child's first right and first duty is to adjust 
himself physiologically to his environment, to learn to walk, to use 
his hands and to feed himself, to be physically independent, there still 
remains the great outer circle of education or culture, without contact 
with which no human being is really either man or woman." — President 
Butler: The Meaning of Education, pp. 13-14. 

"The aim of education is to prepare for complete living. To 
live completely means to be as useful as possible and to be happy. 
By usefulness is meant service, i. e., any activity which promotes the 
material or the spiritual interests of mankind, one or both. To be 
happy one must enjoy both his work and his leisure." — Harris: Educa- 
tional Aims and Educational Values, p. 5. 

"Too many of us think of education for the people as if it meant 
only learning to read, write and cipher. Now, reading, writing and 
simple ciphering are merely the tools by the diligent use of which a 
rational education is to be obtained through years of well-directed labor. 
Under any civilized form of government, these arts ought to be acquired 
by every child by the time it is nine years of age. * * * Moreover, 
the fundamental object of democratic education — to lift the whole 
population to a higher plane of intelligence, conduct and happiness — 
has not yet been apprehended in the United States. Too many of our 
own people think of popular education as if it were only a protection 
against dangerous superstitions, a measure of police, or a means of in- 
creasing the national productiveness in the arts and trades." — Eliot: 
Educational Reforms, pp. 401-3. 



420 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

was ever the church itself. The class struggle is no- 
where more evident than in the conflict going on be- 
tween the educators. One class of teachers view the 
problem from the necessities of the people under capi- 
talism. Another class of teachers view the problem from 
the needs of a full, free human life, regardless as to 
whether or not capitalism is to remain. The victims of 
exploitation ask for such training in the school as 
will enable them to add to their earning power.^ They 
ask that the public school shall be a training school 
preparatory to entering the shop or the market as wage 
workers. The exploiters, on the other hand, demand 
that the public school shall be a training school for ser- 
vants; the technical school must provide superintend- 
ents; the manual training school must provide more 
capable workmen; the public school generally, better 
clerks ; the industrial schools better house servants and 
domestics, and at every point the school must exalt 
those who succeed and must sneer at those who fail, 
regardless of the fact that success may be the fruits of 
villainy and failure come because the bankrupt could 
not bring himself to be a thief. The student of educa- 
tion studying the laws of human life, striving to pro- 
duce personal strength and personal character and to 
lay the foundation for a full and glad existence, re- 
sents the subordination and subjection of the school 
as preparatory to the despotism of the private shop 
and discovers, greatly to his disappointment, that just 
in proportion as his work is well done in the school 
the student is spoiled for the demands of the market. 
560. Breaking With Ideals to Hold Employment.— 

4. "Where the public school term in the United States is longest, 
there the average productive capacity of the citizen is greatest. This 
can hardly be a coincidence. When the man of science finds such a coin- 
cidence as this in his test tube or balance, he proclaims it as a scientific 
discovery proved by inductive science." — Butler: Education in the 
United States, Vol. 1; Introduction, p. 13. 



Chap. XXXI EDUCATION AND SOCIALISM 421 

A principal in one of the great public schools in Chi- 
cago, with many years of experience, stated to the 
writer that it was not an infrequent occurrence that 
young men and women, trained in the public schools, 
after securing employment in the shops or stores, re- 
turn to their teachers for consolation and guidance, and 
that it was the universal testimony of these young peo- 
ple that they were able to make themselves useful to 
their employers only by the abandonment of the ideals 
which had been cherished in the schools. It is a prin- 
ciple in education that that which one learns to do with- 
out the conscious effort to do so, which naturally takes 
possession of one through contact with it, is the thing 
which is most effectively learned and which influences 
the life of the learner in the most marked degree. There 
is nothing more remarkable than the contrast between 
the effort of the school to ennoble and enrich the life 
of the people and the ruthless slaughter of their ideals 
in the shop and the market place. Between the ex- 
ploited working people on the one hand, pleading for 
an opportunity to secure such training for their chil- 
dren as will make them more marketable, and the em- 
ployer on the other hand, demanding such training as 
will multiply the number of those from whom he is to 
select the well-trained workers whom he shall choose to 
employ, the real educator finds himself practically 
without a hearing. 

561. The Clash Between the Market and the Schools. 
—President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, re- 
cently read a paper before the National Educational 
Association, at its meeting in Detroit, addressed to a 
special session of college presidents, in which he con- 
tended, in substance, that the business world has no 
place for the highest product of the worthiest schools. 
Col. Francis Parker, who was then living and present; 
Dr. Harris, National Commissioner of Education; Presi- 



422 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

dent Harper, of the University of Chicago; President 
Hadley, of Yale, and President Eliot, of Harvard, all 
of whom were present, did not dispute the position 
which had been taken, and practically agreed with the 
comment of Col. Francis Parker, that the position taken 
by Dr. Hall was simply a statement of what all edu- 
cators realized to be true. He further stated that this 
is a question which is easy to state, but for which he, at 
least, had been unable to satisfy himself with any an- 
swer he had been able to make as to a way out. These 
distinguished educators were unable to find a way out 
because, as long as capitalism remains the dominant 
factor in our modem life, there is no way out. 

562. Training Masters and Servants.— Making a 
living is the absorbing business of most people ; making 
a fortune is the equally absorbing problem of the few. 
These fortunes are made at the expense of those who 
are doomed to live lives devoted solely to toil in order 
that they may live at all. Between these two classes 
the few rich and the many poor, the relations of mas- 
tery and servitude must last as long as capitalism re- 
mains. And so long as the school is under the domina- 
tion of masters and servants, so long as the business of 
life is either doing the work of a servant or exercising 
the authority of a master, so long the school must an- 
swer to these most dominant influences in society,— 
so long must the school produce masters and servants, 
or it must find itself out of touch with the established 
order of things. 

563. Corrupting the Schools.— Among the things 
which exist in society which must challenge most 
strongly the attention of the children and the influence 
of which is felt throughout the schools, is the great 
power of wealth the great helplessness of poverty and 
the pitiless humiliation of the poor man's child. The 
inevitable discrimination against the poor as they ap- 



Chap. XXXI EDUCATION AND SOCIALISM 423 

proach the higher grades in the public schools,^ is not 
only pathetic, because of its cruelty, but it is most dan- 
gerous to public morals in consideration of the common 
knowledge that great wealth is so frequently associated 
with great rascality. It unavoidably exalts to the high- 
est positions in the mind of the child, not those of the 
highest attainments, or of the worthiest character, not 
those who have best served society, not those who have 
attained to the ideals which the schools attempt to 
cherish,^ but instead those who have betrayed society, 
who have grossly abandoned the highest purposes and 
brutally robbed the helpless under the protection of 
law. These are object lessons "which every child meets 
upon the playground, and every such act of contempt 
for poverty and of deference to wealth is acting pow- 
erfully to corrupt the childhood of the race."^ 

564. Falsifying Text Books.— But this is not all; the 
very text books are filled with examples which do not 
fix the attention of the learner on the real problems of 
real life, but instead on the calculations of the profits 
of the speculators, of the losses of unfortunate invest- 
ments, of the gains of investors, as if investment for 
profit was a natural and necessary act and the relations 

5. "Most systems of education seem designed exclusively for the 
sons of wealthy gentry, who are supposed to have nothing else to do in 
life but seek the highest culture in the most approved and fashionable 
ways," — Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. II., p. 629. 

6. "The mark of a barbarian is not the language he speaks nor 
the deity he worships. It is his rude intellectual development, his nar- 
row range of views, his rough treatment of others. Everything that 
distinguishes a savage from a civilized man can be directly or indirectly 
traced to the differences of education." — Ward: Dynamic Sociology, 
Vo. IL, p. 593. 

7. The present enormous chasm between the ignorant and the 
intelligent, caused by the unequal distribution of knowledge, is the 
worst evil under which society labors. 

"This is because it places it in the power of a small number, having 
no great natural capacity, and no natural right or title, to seek their 
happiness at the expense of a large number. The large number, deprived 
of the means of intelligence, though bom with a capacity for it, are 
really compelled by the small number, through the exercise of a superior 
intelligence, to serve them without compensation." — Ward: Dynamic 
Sociology, Vol. II., p. 602. 



424 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

between gamblers and their victims on boards of trade 
the great relationships of life. The reading lessons 
glorify the subordination of servants, reflect upon labor 
organizations, and worst of all, plainly misstate the 
facts of American history. All these abuses are inci- 
dental to the existence of capitalism. They are in- 
stances of a direct effort to mislead and corrupt the 
youth in the name of education and in behalf of the 
masters.^ 

A United States history widely used in the public 
schools directly states that Socialism was tried at 
Jametsown, was proven a failure and abandoned be- 
cause found to be impracticable. How false such a 
statement is does not need to be argued in this con- 
nection further than to say that what took place at 
Jamestown was the following: 

When a group of adventurers from the idle classes 
of England were on the point of starvation, a military 
master required all to go to work or stop eating. The 
day's work required was a six-hour day, a fact deliber- 
ately suppressed in the school histories. In a single 
season with this short day, with workers not before ac- 
customed to toil, the colony was saved from outright 
ruin. The temporary relief secured by this military or- 
ganization of industry was not Socialism. There was 
no collectivism, no democracy nor equality. There was 
no triumph of the working class over their exploiters. 
There was no abolition of mastery and servitude. The 
instance has but little value except as showing that 
even the bosses will go to work rather than go hungry. 
The industrial development which makes Socialism 

8. "The final result of exclusive reliance upon private benefactions 
for any phase or grade of education will be that the instruction provided 
will not only reflect the interests of a class, but will be confined to a 
class. This is no place to discuss the far-reaching consequences of such 
tendencies. To say they are not in harmony with the ideal of demo- 
cratic civilizntion is to express but mildly a great truth." — Adams: 
Finance, pp. 71 2. 



Chap. XXXI EDUCATION AND SOCIALISM 425 

possible had not then taken place. There is not a 
United States history, so far as known to the writer, 
used in the American public schools which makes any 
allusion to the treason of Northern capitalists in at- 
tempting to throttle the government under the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Lincoln, at the beginning of the Civil 
War. They nowhere point out the economic causes 
which are fundamental in the study of any historical 
problem. These school histories simply glorify a series 
of political and military accidents intended to make the 
student the worshipper of commercial and military 
masters, while leaving them in ignorance of the real 
causes of the events discussed. 

565. The Factory Child and the Public School.— 
Capitalism takes the children from the schools and 
turns them over to the factories before their bodies are 
sufficiently grown to endure the strain of the tasks 
which are given them and before it is possible that their 
minds should be sufficiently informed to make them 
worthy citizen,^ and then the politician, representing 
capitalism, disfranchises the men, grown from these 
very children, because illiterate. Capitalism robs the 
childhood of the country of the play time of its youth, 
or if the children secure access to the play ground, 
the long hours and the needlessly heavy burdens borne 
by the parents make it impossible for the parents, 
the natural playmates of the children, to have their 
play time together with their children. The parent is 
the natural playmate, the most natural instructor, the 
most natural companion for the child, but capitalism 
dooms the ordinary worker to such a life of toil that he 

9. "To make the most of any individual's peculiar power, it is 
important to discover it early, and then train it continuously and 
assiduously. It is wonderful what apparently small personal gifts 
may become the means of conspicuous service or achievement, if only 
they get discovered, trained and applied/' — Eliot : Educational Reforms, 
pp. 408-11. 



426 CURRENT PROBLEMS Pakt V 

is incompetent to be either the playmate or the teacher 
of his own child, and if he was, it so binds him to the 
workshop and the market place that there is no time for 
that most natural companionship of the study hour and 
the play spell between the parent and the child. There 
is no place where the school suffers more than for lack 
of co-operation between the home, on the one hand, and 
the active duties of life, on the other, with the school it- 
self. But the school can now come in touch with the fac- 
tory only by becoming the training school of slaves, 
and it can come in touch with the fireside only by ad- 
mitting to the school house the breath of squalor and 
neglect forced into the workingman's home by the de- 
mands of industry, which makes a shop-worker of both 
wife and child and all too frequently a tramp of the 
natural bread-winner of the home. 

566. Labor and Learning.— Any normal concep- 
tion of education would extend educational activities 
throughout life. No one is too old for play— no one is 
too old to learn. There is no one who would not live 
better and wiser and gladder if there was time out of 
every day for study, for reflection, for original investi- 
gation along some line of careful and independent 
study. There is a limit to the amount of vital force 
possessed by the workers. There is every reason for 
believing that it is a part of the deliberate purpose of 
the capitalists to so engage in toil and to so exhaust 
by toil the average worker that he will be incapable of 
being a free and careful thinker as well as an effective 
worker.^^ 

10. "Despotic governments have stunted men — made them thin- 
blooded, low-browed, all back-head and no forehead. * * * The lar- 
gest wastes of any nation are through ignorance." — Hillis: A Man's 
Value to Society, Chapter I. 

"The point at which knowledge will cease to make a man a better 
wage-earner may be soon reached; but the point at which it will cease 
to make him a better and a happier man will never be reached.** — Creigh- 
ton: Thoughts on Education, pp. 212-13. 

"The last right which it seems necessary to notice here, is the 



Chap. XXXI EDUCATION AND SOCIALISM 427 

It is a pitiful thing td reflect upon, how the vast mul- 
titudes of the toilers throw down their tools at the end 
of the day's task too exnausted to think, even so ex- 
hausted that a rush to the nearest saloon is made for a 
stimulant to draw on the vital force which belongs to 
tomorrow's task, in order to endure the additional 
fatigue of returning to their homes. 

567. So it is seen that capitalism corrupts the school. 
It forces the school to teaching a few things. It mis- 
leads and falsifies the things it teaches. It excludes 
many children from the school in order to use them in 
the shops, and draws the line at the beginning of pro- 
ductive industry for the vast multitudes of the workers 
against any further opportunity for study or for cul- 
ture.^^ 

568. The Hired Boss and His Neglected Learning.— 
The wage worker is not the only one whom capitalism 
robs of the life-long opportunity for intellectual enjoy- 
ment. The hired boss or superintendent, the whole 
group of those who are the hired masters of the great 
industrial establishments, those who are held responsi- 
ble for producing results, are given the stem alterna- 
tive of being driven to the wall by competition in the 
effort to hold their positions or into nervous prostra- 
tion, idiocy or insanity. Those immediately responsi- 
ble for the employment of labor and for achieving in- 
right of education. In this case the right and obligation are so closely 
united that it is scarcely possible to distinguish them. Everyone, we 
may say, has both the right and the obligation of being educated accord- 
ing to his capacity, since education is necessary for the realization of the 
rational self. This is a right which has been but tardily recognized, 
even in some highly civilized countries ; and even now in many of them 
the highest kinds of education are practically inaccessible to the mass 
of the people." — Mackenzie: Manual of Ethics, p. 301. 

11. "It is sufficient to mention Lord Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, 
Alexander von Humboldt, Sir Charles Lyell, or Charles Darwin, in order 
to show that leisure is not, as is claimed, a detriment to aspiration. 
It shows, on the contrary, that the want of it is the great barrier 
to intellectual excellence; that poverty and monotonous toil crush out 
millions of potential luminaries in society." — Ward: Dynamic Sociology', 
Vol. II., pp. 599-600. 



428 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

dustrial success in competitive enterprises are growing 
old in their youth, their young heads are covered with 
gray hairs, their public duties are neglected, their so- 
cial opportunities are forsaken, their appreciation of 
literature or the truths of science is pushed aside for 
the routine of their thankless tasks. They have dulled 
their artistic vision, they have starved their moral and 
mental faculties, they have slaughtered their worthiest 
aspirations, and all these they lay on mammon's altar 
for the place of a hired master and must continue to do 
so, so long as capitalism continues to exist.^^ 

For these, too, the beginning of service is the end 
of mental growth, and must be as long as capitalism 
lasts. 

569. Socialism and Education.— Now, Socialism will 
correct all this. There will be no motive for falsifying 
the books. 

570. The Workshop and the School.— The work 
of the schools and productive industries of society will 
necessarily grow toward each other until the deep abyss 
which now exists between the two will utterly disap- 
pear. It is true that the school would become the train- 
ing school for the workshop, but the workshop will 
cease to be a slaughter house and will become the center 
of the organized activities, wherein the workers, both 
free and glad, will produce together the things essential 
for a full glad life. 

571. The Fireside and the School.— Under Social- 
ism there will be no abyss between the fireside and the 
school house. The teacher will necessarily cease to be 
a young man or a young woman merely using the 
school house as a stepping stone to something else. 
Those who have no taste for teaching and who are there 

12. "The more society is improved and education perfected, the 
more equality will prevail and liberty be extended." — Aristotle: Politics, 
v. III. 



Chap. XXXI EDUCATION AND SOCIALISM 429 

because they cannot earn as much somewhere else will 
disappear entirely from the school room. The long 
hours of leisure which co-operation will win for the 
workers will restore the parents to their children and 
the play hour to the home. The study hour of the 
fireside and the work of the school will so mingle with 
each other that it will be impossible to name the place 
where one ceases and the other begins. 

572. The Ideals of the Schools and the Tasks of 
Real Life.— Under Socialism it will no longer be true 
that the ideals cherished in the schools must be aban- 
doned in the doing of life 's harder tasks, for whenever 
industry is so organized that no one will be able to ex- 
act the services of others, except those who will ren- 
der services in return and, hence, so that no one shall 
be able to provide for himself in the most effective man- 
ner without at the same time he shall contribute to the 
welfare of all; when this is true, it will not need to be 
said again, as President Hall said in Detroit, that 
^' there is no place in actual life for the choicest prod- 
ucts of the worthiest schools. ' ' 

573. Summary.— 1. Capitalism converts the schools 
into training schools for training masters and slaves. 

2. It takes the children from the schools for service 
in the shops. 

3. It makes impossible life-long study for both the 
workers and their hired masters. 

4. It falsifies and prostitutes the text books, en- 
forces base ideals and so misleads the youth in the name 
of education. 

5. Socialism will reverse all this. 'It will make an 
end of mastery and servitude. It will provide for all a 
life-long opportunity for study and all motives leading 
either the writers of text books or the teachers to mis- 
state the facts of history or to betray the highest inter- 
ests of society will cease to exist. 



430 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What is education? 

2. By what means did the old education seek to improve mankind? 

3. How did the coming of capitalism affect education? 

4. What is meant by "the new education"? 

5. How are the master and the serving classes related to the 
schools ? 

6. How are the employments of the shop and market related to 
the schools? 

7. Quote G. Stanley Hall. 

8. What of the effect of commercialism on the life of the schools? 

9. What of the school books and capitalism? 

10. What of the Jamestown experiment ? 

11. What of child labor and illiteracy? 

12. What of the relation of the school and the home? 

13. What chance has a workingman for general study? 

14. How will the coming of Socialism affect the problem of 
education ? 



CHAPTER XXXn 

THE FARMER AND SOCIALISM 

574. Untaken Land.— Karl Marx has spoken no- 
where with greater clearness than in the thirty-third 
chapter of his ' ' Capital, ' ^ when calling attention to the 
peculiar position of the farmers in North America and 
in the Colonies as compared with the farmers in the 
older European countries. He not only illustrates but 
clinches his argument with the famous Swan River ex- 
periment in Australia, where a quarter of a million of 
dollars^ worth of supplies in the shape of cattle, seeds 
and implements were sent to a new country, accom- 
panied by three thousand emigrants and where, be- 
cause of the untaken land, each man could work for 
himself and have the whole of his products. All re- 
fused to work as ^^ hired hands'' and the whole prop- 
erty was lost for lack of laborers.^ 

575. America Before the Civil War.— For more 
than two hundred years a steady stream of immigrants 

1. "First of all Wakefield discovered that in tlie Colonies, property 
in money, means of subsistence, machines and other means of produc- 
tion, does not as yet stamp a man as a capitalist if there be wanting 
the correlative — the wage worker, the other man who is compelled to 
sell himself of his own free will. He discovered that capital is not a 
thing, but a social relation between persons, established by the instru- 
mentality of things. Mr. Peel, he moans, took with him from England 

431 



432 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

came to America. They landed with but scanty re- 
sources. But their earnings for a short time as ^^ hired 
hands" made possible a beginning of their own, on 
lands of their own, and, so, for all this time, the wages 
of labor made a nearer approach to the value of the 
products of labor than was possible in European coun- 
tries. The immigrant who had been here but a short 
time, on becoming himself a self-employed farmer, 
made way in the labor market for the more recent ar- 
rivals. While the supply from abroad occasionally 
gave the Atlantic cities an over supply of wage work- 
ers, the outlet in the West was so constant that not 
until recent years (Marx says, not until after the Civil 
War) was the supply of labor so in excess of the de- 
mand as to bring to America the capitalistic situation 
as related to the supply of wage workers and together 
with it the rule of capitalism as related to land as a 
means of production.^ 

576. The Disappearing Wage Worker.— While land 
was cheap and plentiful, and the tools of agriculture 

to Swan River, West Australia, means of subsistence and of production 
to the amount of £50,000 ($250,000). Mr. Peel had the foresight to bring 
with him, besides, 3,000 persons of the working class, men, women and 
children. Once arrived at his destination, 'Mr. Peel was left without a 
servant to make his bed or fetch him water from the river.' Unhappy- 
Mr. Peel, who provided for everything except the export of English 
modes of production to Swan River." — ^Karl Marx: Capital, pp. 791-792. 
2. "Meanwhile the advance of capitalistic production in Europe, 
accompanied by increasing government pressure, has rendered Wake- 
field's recipe superfluous. On the one hand, the enormous anu ceaseless 
stream of men, year after year driven upon America, leaves behind a 
stationary sediment in the east of the United States, the wave of 
immigration from Europe throwing men on the labor market there more 
rapidly than the wave of emigration westwards can wash them away. 
On the other hand, the American Civil War brought in its train a colossal 
national debt, and, with it, pressure of taxes, the rise of the vilest finan- 
cial aristocracy, the squandering of a huge part of the public land on 
speculative companies for the exploitation of railways, mines, etc., in 
brief, the most rapid centralization of capital. The great republic has, 
therefore, ceased to be the promised land for emigrant laborers. Capi- 
talistic production advances there with giant strides, even though the 
lowering of wages and the dependence of the wage worker are as yet 
far from being brought down to the normal European level." — ^Karl 
Marx: Capital, p. 799, 



Chap. XXXII THE FARMER AND SOCIALISM 433 

were simple and inexpensive, the wage workers who 
came to this comitry were constantly disappearing by 
becoming small farmers, that is, workers with suffi- 
cient property of their own to employ their own labor 
but with neither the capital nor with the surplus labor 
at hand to enable them to become the capitalistic ex- 
ploiters of the labor of others. Their property was 
the result of their own industry and saving and was 
used for their own employment and support. This 
was in strong contrast to the capitalist system where 
capital is the accumulation by the few of the products 
of the many, with the many wholly dependent on the 
few for the opportunity to create a living. 

577. Independent Self -Support.— These free self- 
employing farmers not only produced their own food, 
but for more than a hundred and fifty years they were 
practically the only manufacturers as well.^ They pro- 
duced on their own farms their own clothing, boots, 
shoes, furniture and fuel, built their own houses, and 
with rude tools and scant returns lived their own free 
life.^ That is, they did, without equipment and with- 
out organization, exactly what Socialism demands they 
shall have an opportunity to do again, become their 
own employers and have for their own reward the total 
product of their own labor, but with the added oppor- 

3. "The first threshing machine was not invented till 1786; the 
cast-iron wheeled plow, the drill, the potato digger, the reaper and 
binder, the hay-raker, the corn-cutter, are not fifty years old. The 
Massachusetts farmer who witnessed the revolution plowed his land 
with the wooden 'bull plow,' sowed his grain broadcast, and, when it was 
ripe, cut it with a scythe, and threshed it on his barn floor with a flail. 
His house was without paint; his floors were without carpet. When 
darkness came on his light was derived from a few candles of home 
manufacture. The place of furnaces and stoves was supplied by huge 
cavernous fireplaces which took up one side of the room, and, sending 
half the smoke into the apartment, sent half the heat up the chimney." — 
McMaster : History of the People of the United States, Vol. I., p. 18. 

4. "In a paper, called 'Cause of and Cure for Hard Times,' published 
in 1787, an honest old farmer is made to say: 'At this time my farm 
gave me and my whole family a good living on the produce of it, and 
left me, one year with another, one hundred and fifty silver dollars, for 



434 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

tunity of the free use of the best equipment, and most 
perfect organization, not only in the production of 
crops from the soil, but in the whole round of human 
activity. 

578. The Self -Employed.— It is not disputed that 
for most of this time feudalism ruled on the Hudson, 
and chattel slavery ruled in the South, but it is insisted 
that neither were in the line of the real American ad- 
vance, and both were broken to pieces not only because 
neither was as profitable for the capitalist as the wage 
system, but for the added reason that the self -employ- 
ing farmers revolted against the oppression of slav- 
ery, with even greater fierceness than capitalism did 
against its economic losses. It was the sons of the 
self -employing farmers in the East, who, seeking for 
new homes for themselves in the West, fought the 
battles for free soil as against the southern planter, 
and for free homesteads as against the northern land 
grabber, and who at the same time waged the war as 
fiercely in one direction as they did in the other. 

579. No Inheritance of Dependence.— The American 
farmers do not have the inheritance of a thousand 
years of helpless dependence after the manner of the 
European peasants. They have the record of the mas- 
tery of the land of their nativity for over two hundred 
years, for it was they who conquered the wilderness, 
established civilization, fought the French and Indian 
wars, and achieved the national independence of this 
country, and then afterward controlled its affairs for 
more than half a century. The city has arisen and the 
farmer has been shorn of his power in politics. The 

I never spent more than ten dollars a year, which was for salt, nails and 
the like. Nothing to wear, eat or drink was purchased, as my farm 
provided all.' American Museum, January 1787, Connecticut Courant, 
August 18, 1788. Had this case been an uncommon one, the force and 
value of the paper would have been loat." — McMaster : Vol I., foot note, 
p. 19. 



Chap. XXXII THE FARMER AND SOCIALISM 435 

factory has come and household manufacturing has 
disappeared and the farmer is made dependent for the 
larger share of his living on what he can sell into the 
market of his raw product in order that he may again 
buy out of the market the things of his use, and he is 
even more unable to control the market, either when 
he sells or when he buys, than is the skilled workman 
of the city when he sells his labor or buys his bread. 

580. Under the Yoke.— Capitalism has now taken 
the farmer as well as the carpenter or the iron moulder, 
and has set him to work under the pressure of the 
iron law of wages, and while his wages are paid in a 
different way and his dependence is enforced in a dif- 
ferent manner, he is as helpless as the wage worker. 
He is the victim of the same exploitation. He is given 
a bare subsistence for his long hours of toil and capital 
takes the rest of his products and under capitalism he 
has no way of escape. 

581. Loss of Independence.— The self-employing in- 
dependence of the American farmer has been taken 
away from him in four ways ; (1) by the occupation of 
the land, (2) by the development of machinery, (3) by 
the separation of manufacturing production from the 
farmer's household, and (4) by the specialization of 
certain lines of agricultural enterprise and their or- 
ganization by corporations on a large -scale and com- 
pletely under the factory methods of production. 

582. Occupation of New Land.— 1. The private oc- 
cupation of available public lands is practically com- 
plete. The recent settlement of Oklahoma shows how 
the surplus labor of the country would seek for self- 
employment on the land had it any longer the oppor- 
tunity to do so. The surplus labor cannot any longer 
find an outlet on new land and so capitalism, not only 
in the shop but on the land also, can proceed to rob the 
laborer according to its spirit and its habit, because the 



436 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

public land being gone, the surplus worker has no other 
choice than to stand and deliver, or to tramp and 
starve. 

583. Machinery.— 2. The development of machin- 
ery makes the amount of capital necessary to enable 
one to produce to the best advantage so large that, even 
were the land provided, the additional equipment for 
effective production requires an outlay beyond the pos- 
sible earnings of a wage worker. An ox-team, a few 
chickens and a cow is no longer an outfit for a farmer, 
any more than a spinning wheel is an outfit for a cotton 
factory. With both the land and the machinery con- 
trolled by the capitalist, the toolless and landless 
worker has no outlet on the farm, except it be by long 
years of exhausting toil and through measureless pri- 
vation to which no one ought to submit, since there 
is no economic necessity for either the long toil or the 
extreme privation. 

584. The Narrowing Process.— 3. But more seri- 
ous than either of these is the equipment and organiza- 
tion of mining, manufacturing, transportation and 
storage, entirely separate from the farmer, and in 
every instance beyond his control. He cannot live 
without the use of these great instruments of industry 
and commerce. He cannot get his products into the 
market nor his living out of the market without their 
use. The capitalists control these things and they fix 
the terms on which the farmer is permitted to exist. 
They fix the price of what he sells and they ^ the price 
of what he buys, and in spite of his ownership of his 
land and his farming implements, they ^ his income, 
and in real capitalistic fashion they fix it on the basis 
of a bare existence for the farmer along with all the 
other workers. 

585. Specialization in Farming.— 4. The separa- 
tion of purely manufacturing undertakings from the 



Chap. XXXII THE FARMER AND SOCIALISM 437 

farm narrowed the farmer 's employment to the pro- 
duction of raw materials for the manufacture of food 
and clothes, but the specialization of certain lines of 
agricultural enterprises has taken from the self-em- 
ploying farmers large portions of their work even as 
the producers of raw materials used in the production 
of food and clothes. The raising of cattle and sheep, 
together with wool-growing, the butter and cheese busi- 
ness, the stock yards and packing house enterprises, 
are largely in the hands of corporations. The growing 
and manufacture of sugar, the producing and market- 
ing of fruit, the raising of beans, cabbages and pickles, 
to some extent the production of wheat, and all the 
great preserving processes, are more and more becom- 
ing great corporation affairs. 

As fast as the factory system— that is, ample capital, 
a single centralized management and thoroughly scien- 
tific methods— can specialize and improve and so econ- 
omize in the processes of producing any article of farm 
produce that its production can be made cheaper with 
the work of a single worker as a part of the organiza- 
tion than is the cost of feeding the farmer's family 
along with himself, just so fast the corporation organ- 
izes the business, employs the single worker in the or- 
ganization, makes no provision for the worker's family 
and narrows the range of the farmer's undertakings. 
President Gr. Stanley Hall is the authority for the 
statement that the New England farmer of fifty years 
ago did the work which since then has been specialized 
into not fewer than sixty trades, and this process of 
specialization still continues. 

586. The Small Farm.— It is claimed that small 
farms, cultivated by single-handed workers and their 
families, will always pay better than large ones, and 
diversified farming better than ''wool growing," 
''market gardening," ''wheat raising," "cattle ranch- 



438 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

ing/' ^^bean farming, '^ ^^ fruit raising," ''the milk 
business," ^ ^ dairying, " or any other single specialty 
in farming. The answer to this is two-fold. (1) This 
same thing has been said continuously throughout all 
the years during which spinning, weaving, tanning, 
shoe making, fuel production, preserving, fruit grow- 
ing, dairying and cattle raising have been coming under 
the form of the factory system, and still the process 
of specialization, capitalization and organization, with 
the self-employed small farmer left out of the organ- 
ization and deprived of its benefits, goes on continu- 
ously. East such step has made the ^independent 
farmer" more and more dependent on the corpora- 
tions created by and managed under modern capi- 
talism. 

587. Salaried Superintendents.— 2. If it be dis- 
puted that the factory system is entering largely into 
the field of agriculture and with the same results as 
in manufacturing, a sufficient reason for thinking so 
is found in the fact that just as students in the schools 
of technology are picked up for superintendents in fac- 
tories, as fast as they graduate, so the students in 
agricultural colleges are taken even faster than they 
are able to graduate, as superintendents of capitalistic 
enterprises in agriculture, dairying or in fruit growing 
companies, and in these enterprises they are given sal- 
aries from two to five times the average earnings of 
the self-employed farmer. 

588. Why Half a Farm.-If it be said that the 
farms are growing smaller on the average, and that 
therefore the corporation farm does not threaten the 
self-employed farmer, along with the self-employed 
store-keeper, or manufacturer, the answer is that both 
the small shop and the small store grow smaller as they 
disappear. As the department store advances the 
small store does not tend to get larger, but it is com- 



Chap. XXXII THE FARMER AXD SOCIALISM 439 

pelled to get smaller in the process of its extinction. 
That farms are getting smaller on the average is ably 
disputed as a matter of fact, but whatever the truth 
may be, it is not essential to our argument. If the 
average acreage of the farm is less, it is because the 
mortgaged farm is divided in order that the farmer 
may sacrifice a part of it rather than lose it all. If 
the old homesteads are being divided among the chil- 
dren, it is because there is no other outlet for the 
farmers ' sons. It is not because a half a farm is more 
desirable for each of two children than would be a 
whole one. It is because it has come to a point where 
neither the city shop nor the western lands can provide 
for surplus population. It is because half a farm is 
better than no farm at all. It is not because the fac- 
tory system of limitless capital, cheap labor and scien- 
tific management will not work in agriculture. It is 
because the average farmer's boy cannot take advan- 
tage of these and is obliged to forego the most eco- 
nomic methods of production and to work on with poor 
equipment, within narrow fields and with unscientific 
methods or to have no means at all whereby he may 
save his life. 

589. MiUionaire Ranchmen.— It should be borne in 
mind that there are all grades of farmers, from the 
millionaire ranchman to the farm hand. The farm 
hand is completely a wage worker, and the millionaire 
ranchman is completely a capitalist. Just as the small 
manufacturer and the small store keeper are doomed 
by the great factory and the department store, and can 
have no interest in common with them, so the self-em- 
ployed farmer is utterly without any interest in com- 
mon with corporation millionaires, who are already 
masters in the sheep, wool and cattle industries, and 
are continually entering every other field of agricultur- 
al enterprise. 

590. Surrender for Lack of Outlet.— If rude tools 



440 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

and single-handed industry remain in nse on tlie small 
farms it is not because good tools are not desirable. 
It is because human life is so cheap on these small 
farms in the presence of increasing populations and 
with no outlet elsewhere. Make decent industrial op- 
portunities for all and the conditions of farm labor 
will necessarily be made as good, with rewards as 
great, and with hours of toil as short, and with life's 
social opportunities as desirable, as are those of any 
other calling, or the farm work will not be done. But 
the farm work must be done. The food supply of the 
world depends upon it. Very well, then, if decent in- 
dustrial conditions were provided for all by the co- 
operative organization of the great manufacturing, 
mining, transportation and storage industries, with 
equal opportunity for all to be employed in these in- 
dustries, then the conditions of farm labor would nec- 
essarily have to be so improved that the advantages 
of the man who works closest to the soil would be the 
equal of those enjoyed by any other workers, and this 
would be equally true whether agriculture was carried 
on co-operatively or as individual enterprises, pro- 
vided equal access to the soil with equal equipment for 
its use are guaranteed to all. 

591. The Surplus Farmer's Boy.— If there was an 
outlet on new land the farmer's surplus boy woud not 
divide the old farm. If there was an outlet in some 
other calling he would not be a farmer at all. He 
would not submit to the long hours of toil, to the con- 
stant separation from the society of his fellows, to the 
loneliness and isolation of his wife and children, in 
their separation from social and educational opportu- 
nities, had he any better choice than the cheerless and 
over-crowded tenement which is now a poor man's lot 
if he leaves the farm. 

592. **Middle Class'' Farmers.— The defenders of 



Chap. XXXII THE FARMER AND SOCIALISI 441 

capitalism are fond of pointing to the Census Eeport 
and to the fact that the value of farm property in the 
United States exceeds twenty billion dollars as evi- 
dence that there is a ' ^ great middle class that can have 
no interest in Socialism. ' ' To this the reply is that the 
matter of greatest concern to the wage worker is the 
fact that he cannot escape exploitation. Socialism will 
put an end to exploitation. Then Socialism is of the 
most vital concern to all victims of exploitation. 
Therefore, if a great majority of the people who are 
usually considered in * ^ the middle class ' * are found to 
be, nevertheless, victims of exploitation, then it is clear 
that they have interests which will be best served by 
the coming of Socialism. 

593. The Exploited Farmer.— Is the farmer ex- 
ploited I The following facts, taken from the ** Ab- 
stract of the Twelfth Census, 1900," issued from the 
United States Census Office, shows that an unqualified 
statement that one is the owner of a farm does not 
alone determine whether he is an exploiter or the vic- 
tim of exploitation. The total value of farm property 
was $20,439,901,164 (p. 217), while the total value of 
the farm product, not fed to live stock, was $3,764,177,- 
706. Deduct from this $54,783,757, which was paid for 
fertilizers (p. 236), divide the remainder by 10,381,- 
765 workers engaged in farming industry (p. 24), and 
you have $357 to the individual employed. From this 
$357 must be further deducted interest on mortgages, 
taxes, cost of repairing machinery, etc. [which amount 
is not stated], in order to find the average annual re- 
turns for the labor of an individual employed in the 
farming industry. 

594. Worse Than Cotton Factories.— The value of 
the product of 3,375,862 of these farms averages less 
than $250. This number is equal to 58.8 per cent of all 
the farms in this country (p. 222). The value of the 



442 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

product of 1,378,539 of the better farms, i. e., 24 per 
cent of the total number of farms, averages about $750. 
From this must be deducted the amount paid for hired 
help, interest on mortgages, taxes and repair of ma- 
chinery in order to find the net income of the farmer 
of this class. This shows that on the average the 24 
per cent of the total number of farmers are exploited 
to as great an extent as the iron and steel worker whose 
wages average $584 per year (pp. 322-323) while the 
58.8 per cent, the farmers of the poorer class, are ex- 
ploited on the average to a greater extent than the cot- 
ton factory workers, where so many helpless women 
and children are employed for the poorest wages paid 
in any of the manufacturing industries.^ There re- 
mains 14.5 per cent of the farmers with an average 
product of $1,750 and 2.7 per cent of the farmers have 
a product of over $2,500: 

There are 2,014,316 tenants and 4,410,877 farm 
hands most of whom must find a place on these last two 
classes of farms. These tenants and farm hands can 
have no interest in perpetuating exploitation. It will 
give an idea as to how numerous these tenants and 
farm hands are and how large a proportion of the 
whole population is so employed and so exploited by 
remembering that together they exceed by 169,525 the 
total popular vote of the Democratic party in the 
United States in 1900. That this vast army of farm 
workers are the victims of capitalistic exploitation no 
one denies. 

595. Bankers Not Farmers.— But it must be remem- 
bered that ownership of a farm that does not yield 

5, It is interesting to notice that the southern manufacturers reply 
to the complaint against the employment of children in the southern 
factories by calling attention to the fact that these children are better 
cared for in the factories than they had before been cared for on the 
farms. To this no answer can be made by those who object to child labor 
in the factories, but ignore its existence on the farms. 



Chap. XXXII THE FARMER AND SOCIALISM 443 

enough product to support two families does not en^ 
able the owner to rent it to another and live himself as 
an exploiter. There are many bankers and business 
men who own and rent farms that yield only a few 
hundred dollars' worth of products, but they are able 
to do this not because of their ownership of the aver- 
age farm but because of their ownership of many such 
farms or of other things in no way a part of the farm. 
So the argument that 82.8 per cent of the farms do not 
enable their owners to become exploiters or to escape 
exploitation still holds good, while the 2,014,316 ten- 
ants and 4,410,877 wage earners, in addition to the ex- 
ploited owners of the average farm, make it certain 
that at least 90 per cent of all those engaged in farm- 
ing are victims of exploitation to as great an extent 
as the wage workers in other industries. The bankers 
and business men who own farms and rent them can- 
not be classed with the farmers any more than the 
members of a railroad corporation who exploit the far- 
mer in another way. The Census Eeports do not 
count these bankers and business men as farmers and 
they are not included in the above. 

596. The Largest Group of the Working Class.— 
If 90 per cent of the 10,381,765 workers engaged in 
agricultural employments are victims of exploitation 
that will make a total number of 9,343,589 such vic- 
tims. The total vote for all candidates for the presi- 
dency, scattering votes and all, in 1900, was 13,983,610. 
If the number of exploited farm workers be compared 
with this total vote it will be found that it exceeds two- 
thirds of the whole vote by 21,183. It equals about 
one-half of all the whole number of productive work- 
ers in the United States and is a majority of more than 
a million over the whole number of full-grown male 
workers engaged in all other industries. Whatever 
these workers own does not deliver them from exploi- 



444 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

tation. Nothing but Socialism can ever effect their 
deliverance. 

597. The Agricultural Working Class.— The own- 
ership of property which is not used for the purposes 
of exploitation does not make a man a capitalist. It 
is inconceivable that nnder Socialism the general aver- 
age of property held for private use will not vastly 
exceed anything that does or can exist under capital- 
ism. The ownership of property, the income from 
which in rent, interest or profit does not amount to a 
sufficient sum to enable its possessor to live without 
labor, still leaves such a person in the working class, 
subject to exploitation and dependent on the coming of 
Socialism as the only certain means for his deliver- 
ance. 

598. A Bare Existence.— Capitalism in the shop and 
store and on the farm alike, leaves for most men but a 
bare existence and appropriates for itself the bulk of 
labor 's products, securing for the capitalists an income 
which they can neither use nor waste. By the spe- 
cialization and organization of industry under capital- 
ism the means of producing the means of life are no 
longer in the hands of any of the workers. This is as 
true of the farmer as of any of the other workers. He 
is as dependent on a railroad as he is on a self-binder. 
He is as dependent on a cotton factory as he is on a 
cotton field or a herd of sheep. He is as dependent on 
a sugar refinery as he is on his garden. He is as de- 
pendent on the market as he is on his farm. The 
means of transportation, manufacture and return to 
him of the means of his own existence are as far be- 
yond his control as they are with the carpenter who 
owns his kit of tools and yet lives solely by the consent 
of capitalism. 

599. Public Ownership.— Capitalism cannot deliver 
the farmer from exploitation, nor can any possible re- 



Chap. XXXII THE FARMER AND SOCIALISM 445 

form, made mider capitalism, do so. Public ownership 
of railroads simply leaves the coal, the machinery and 
the steel mills and ore mines in private hands, and the 
capitalist still able to manipulate business and despoil 
the workers. If all the related industries are to go 
with the roads, and all to be controlled by the workers, 
and in their own behalf, that would fix it, but that 
would include all important industries and that is 
Socialism. 

600. Public Loans.— Public loans on the storage of 
grain would help the farmer to hold his crop for a 
later market, would help all the farmers to do so. If 
this advanced the price to the farmer, the capitalist 
would still fix the price of what the farmer buys and 
what he would save in the one case he would lose in the 
other. If the public would provide the means for pro- 
ducing what the farmer buys and would store that, as 
well as what the farmer produces, and would give all 
hands a chance at the goods for the cost of production, 
that would not only secure for the farmer the full value 
of the product of his own labor, but it would give him 
access to the products of others on a basis which would 
increase his purchasing power in the market more than 
would be true of any other class of workers. At the 
same time it would give the manufacturing working- 
man the same advantage and increase his purchasing 
power in the same manner, if not to the same degree. 
But that is Socialism. 

601. Farmer and Capitalist.— The ordinary farmer 
is not a capitalist. He is a workingman. Whatever he 
owns he owns in order that he may employ himself. 
When he employs others, it is only in order to use his 
own labor to a better advantage. His farm is not his 
in order to exploit others, but in order to employ him- 
self. He has no interests in common with the capitalist. 
His own and his children's future depends on the over- 



446 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

throw of capitalism. The only alternate to capital- 
ism is Socialism. 

602. Socialism and the Farmer.— What would So- 
cialism do for the American farmer 1 

It would provide at once an outlet for surplus popu- 
lation. It could inaugurate agriculture on the new and 
arid lands [now worthless] by vast systems of im- 
provements, and give to every idle worker, not the va- 
cant land, but employment with the complete st equip- 
ment and the most perfect organization, and to all of 
the workers would belong all of the products. The sur- 
plus farmer's boy and the idle carpenter, instead of 
dividing the old farm or competing with a fellow la- 
borer for the chance to live, would be given the best of 
all possible chances to provide for themselves. 

Socialism would make possible the storage of the 
water at the sources of all the rivers of the Mississippi 
valley and its distribution and use when needed on the 
very lands on which the floods and drouths now spoil 
so large a share of their productive possibilities. Be- 
sides, in those vast enterprises the great tracts of un- 
used alluvial lands of the Mississippi bottoms could 
be brought under the most scientific cultivation, and 
the jnachinery of agricultural production perfected on 
the largest scale, and so again, by the enormous in- 
crease of production on such a scale, further multiply 
the productivity of labor. All of this enormous gain 
would fall to the workers only. By this increase of 
productivity, the working day could be greatly short- 
ened, while the product would at the same time be 
greatly increased. During the busy season the farm 
workers could be reinforced from other sources, and 
during the dull season the man on the land could be 
otherwise employed, so that instead of the overwork 
of the busy season and the idleness of many for the 



Chap. XXXII THE FARMER AND SOCIALISM 447 

non-productive months, there would be all the year 
employment for all the workers.^ 

Eapid transit and ample leisure for all the workers 
would make possible numerous centers of population, 
and instead of the lonely isolation of the usual farm 
house, they would put within easy reach of the workers 
on the land every social and educational opportunity 
which could be provided for anybody or anywhere. 

603. The Farmer's Family.— -What the farmers will 
do with Socialism ought not to be a hard question to 
answer so long as the question, how to keep the boys on 
the farms, remains unanswered. 

The ordinary farmer's boy has hopes beyond the 
boundaries of the farm home of his childhood. What- 
ever may be said to him about the joys of country life, 
he sees the farmers around him worn and bent with 
toil. He sees his mother old before her time, and he 
can see no future for himself and the woman who is to 
be his wife but to repeat the toilsome tasks of those who 
gave him his existence. 

Socialism alone can solve the problem of the farmer's 
boy. It alone can provide for him the manly life of 
labor and leisure for which he longs. 

The farmer's daughter depends on Socialism as her 
only sure way for entry into the gladder and larger 
social life which lies beyond the farm house. 

If she escapes from the farm now, it is to become a 
servant in the office, shop or kitchen of some stranger, 
and so exchange her independent isolation on the farm 
for association in the midst of humiliating dependence. 

604. Enlarging Life and Restoring Liberty.— The 
value of the average products of all the workers in 
manufacturing, mining and transportation greatly ex- 
ceeds that of the workers on the land. Formerly all 
these things were done by the farmers themselves in 

6. In discussing the order of advance under the socialization of 
industries the "Communist Manifesto" suggests: 

"Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual 
abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable 
distribution of the population over the country." 



448 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

the old rude way of doing them. But capitalism has 
separated them from the farmer, vastly increased their 
productivity and excluded the farmer from the benefits 
of the improvements. Socialism would again make the 
farmer a sharer in these and in the whole industrial life 
of the world. 

There will be no occasion for attacking the small 
farm on the inauguration of Socialism. The collective 
industry could not afford to touch such properties un- 
til the great and unused tracts of arid and bottom lands 
should first be used, and long before such enterprises 
could be completed, the small farmer could not be kept 
at his isolated and unprofitable task, so great would 
be the rewards awaiting him in the collective industry. 
But should the small farm still give the best returns 
there is no reason why the farm work of the world 
may not still be done on small farms, only the fear of 
foreclosure or eviction or the dependence of the farm 
tenant and the farm hand will be forever over, as well 
as the power of the railways, the factories and the 
storehouses to corner the farmer's products and rob 
him of the value of the services he has rendered. 

605. The Way Out.— Forty per cent of the voting 
population is on the farm. Ninety per cent of these 
farmers, as the smallest possible estimate, have noth- 
ing to lose but their isolation and their poverty by the 
coming of Socialism, and they, too, as well as the wage 
slaves of the manufacturing towns, have a world to 
gain. 

The farmers had a more influential part in making 
the institutions of this country than any other class of 
workers. They have been and are the most independent 
in political action, and they are by force of habit and 
by the experience of all those now living in the western 
and central western states, accustomed to adventure 
and are determined not to be directly or indirectly the 
slaves of capitalism in any form. But the farmers can 
never rule this country again, except in alliance with 



Chap. XXXII THE FAKMER ANB SOCIALISM 449 

the working men of the factories, mines, storehouses 
and transportation lines. 

The working men of the towns, in a party by them- 
selves, will not be able to ont-vote the country districts 
for many years. But the workers of the towns and of 
the country are alike ready and over-ripe for Socialism. 
When they unite to secure Socialism, Socialism will 
come on that same hour. 

606. Summary.— 1. The American farmers have 
at last come under the control of capitalism. 
. 2. Under capitalism the famer must work for a 
bare existence the same as other workers. 

3. His ownership of a portion of the means of pro- 
duction, in the shape of land and implements, does not 
deliver him from exploitation, because he depends as 
fully on the means of production in manufacture and 
on the means of distribution, as do the wage workers, 
and neither in the means of manufacture nor in the 
means of distribution has he any ownership. 

4. Public ownership of a part of the means of manu- 
facture and distribution will not deliver him from ex- 
ploitation, so long as any share of the means of produc- 
tion in manufacture or the means of distribution on 
which he must depend are privately owned, because 
such a partial public ownership will only shift the place 
where he is robbed, not stop the robbery. 

5. No real relief can be secured for the farmer by 
any reform in the medium of exchange, or in the meth- 
od by which he secures the use of money in order to 
exchange his own products for manufactured articles, 
so long as the things he buys are privately controlled, 
through the private ownership of the means of manu- 
facture and distribution. 

6. The great economies of the use of the great ma- 
chines, the special skill resulting from the minute divis- 
ions of labor, the opportimity to be productively em- 
ployed, all the year round, and the opportunity to 
secure what he cannot produce, at what it costs in 
labor to produce it, can never be obtained by the farmer 



450 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

under capitalism, but will at once be realized under 
Socialism. 

7. The income of farm and factory workers can be 
greatly increased, and the working day for both greatly 
shortened under Socialism. There is no great or lasting 
improvement for either under capitalism. 

8. Under Socialism farmers and their families will 
^have even better social and educational opportunities 

than are now provided for the most fortunate. Neither 
their sons nor daughters will be obliged to abandon 
the associations of childhood and become the hired 
servants of anyone in order to make a beginning in 
the world. 

9. The farmers who are manual laborers, together 
with the wage workers of the towns, are, together, the 
overwhelming majority .of the people. Socialism is 
the only platform which shows a way of deliverance 
both for self-employed farmers and wage workers, and 
hence, on which they can all unite, and united no powel 
can withstand them. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Show the reason why farmers in new countries have been able to 
escape from the control of capitalism. 

2. What share has the American farmer had in the development 
and government of this country ? 

3. Show how the private occupancy of the public land has helped to 
bring the farmer under the control of capitalism. 

4. Show the same thing with regard to the development of 
machinery and with regard to the separation of mining and manufac- 
turing from the farmer. 

5. Why will not public ownership of the railroads deliver the far- 
mers from exploitation? 

6. Why will not the public storage and public loans deliver the 
farmer from exploitation? 

7. How far must public ownership be extended in order to deliver 
the farmer from exploitation? Who else would then be benefited? 

8. How would Socialism provide for the farmer's sons and 
daughters ? 

9. How would it affect his hours of labor, and his social and educa- 
tional opportunities? Why? 

10. Would Socialism begin with an attack on the small farms? 
Why not ? If the small farmer should give up his farm under Socialism, 
why would he do it ? 

11. Is it likely that the farmers will ever be able to control the 
country again, without the aid of the manufacturing wage workers? 

12. Can either secure economic independence without the other? 

13. Why is Socialism the only platform on which all the workers, 
including the farmers, can be united? 



CHAPTER XXXin 

THE MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIALISM 

607. The Middle Class.— The term ''middle class'' 
applies in ordinary literature to the class of manufac- 
turers and business men developed in the growth of 
modern industry between the aristocracy on the one 
hand and the wage workers on the other. Cromwell 
was the political representative of this class in his 
time; Cobden, Bright and Gladstone were representa^ 
tives of the same class. The continental term for this 
middle class is the ''bourgeoisie." This term is de- 
rived from the term "burghers," meaning townsmen 
of mediaeval times. "Burgh," which is a part of the 
names of so many American towns, as "Pittsburgh," 
is from this same source. 

The term "bourgeois" came finally to mean the em- 
ploying manufacturers and traders of the towns as dis- 
tinguished from working men of the towns who were 
without the means of self-employment, as well as from 
the military masters, soldiers and peasants in and 
about the castles. In English literature the same class 
is spoken of as the "commoners." 

In America, there being no aristocracy, society is 
properly divided into two classes only— the class which 
in England is called the ' ' commoners, ' ' and on the Con- 

451 



452 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

tinent the ^* bourgeoisie," in America is represented by 
employing manufacturers and business men. The 
small business men, or the small shop men on the conti- 
nent are spoken of as the ^* petty bourgeois." In 
America, in ordinary discussion, the term middle class 
has come to apply to the ^^ petty bourgeois," that is, 
to the small manufacturer and the small business man. 
The small farmer has come also to be included in the 
middle class in American discussions. 

608. The Subject Stated.— The subject, then, for 
this chapter, is the consideration of these small busi- 
ness men, small manufacturers and small property 
holders of all sorts in relation to the Socialist move- 
ment in this country. It must be remembered, to begin 
with, that most men will be governed, in the long run 
and as a general principle, by what they conceive to be 
their economic interests. It has been seen that these 
economic interests have so far determined all of the 
great conflicts in the history of the race. It must be 
borne in mind that the class struggle is directly be- 
tween the business man's interest and the working 
man's interest; that is, it is a struggle resulting from a 
conflict of interests. If the share of the products which 
falls to the workers is to be increased, then the share 
which goes for rent, interest and profit must be de- 
creased. If the share which goes for rent, interest and 
profit shall be increased, then the share which falls to 
the laborer must be correspondingly decreased. Each 
party to this conflict is all the time endeavoring to en- 
large its own share. This is the war of interests which 
is always going on under capitalism. 

These mutually antagonistic interests naturally 
bring into antagonistic relations the parties whose in- 
terests are thus found to be in conflict. There is no 
question as to where the interests of wage workers 
fall in this struggle. There is no question as to where 



Chap. XXXIII MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIALISM 453 

the capitalist, that is, the man who holds in private 
ownership the means of production, and uses these pri- 
vately owned means of production for the purposes of 
exploitation— there is no question as to where the in- 
terests of this man fall, and so far as he understands 
his interests, there is no question as to where he will be 
most likely to be found in the conflict. 

609. Numbers of the Various Classes.— It has been 
seen in the previous chapter that ninety per cent of 
those engaged in agricultural employments are the 
victims of exploitation. While twenty billions and 
more are invested in farm property, only the smallest 
number of farms, not more than 17.2 per cent of them 
all, are the means of exploitation. All the workers on 
this 17o2 per cent of the farms and all the people, both 
the owners who are also workers and the workers who 
are not owners on all the other farms, are victims of 
exploitation. It is not an easy matter to fix the lines 
marking the boundaries of the middle class from the 
large capitalists. If the 14.5 per cent of the farmers 
with an average product of $1,750 per year be classed 
as the middle class and the 2.7 per cent which, accord- 
ing to the same authority claims to produce a yearly 
product valued at more that $2,500 per year, be classed 
as capitalists, and then the same proportion is ad- 
mitted to hold good in all other callings, the boundaries 
will probably be admitted to be substantially correct.^ 
This would leave the working class composed of 82.8 
per cent of all the people, which is certainly under 
rather than over the number of those who earn their 
living by rendering service rather than by appropriat- 
ing the products of others. 

The subject of this chapter is the discussion of the 
relations of this small group of only 14.5 per cent of 

1. Abstract, The Twelfth Census, p. 233. 



454 CURRENT PROBLEMS Pabt V 

the population to the economic and political conflict be- 
tween the 82.8 per cent on the one hand and the 2.7 per 
cent on the other. 

The consideration of this gronp is of very much 
greater importance than the small number which be- 
long to it would seem to indicate. Only 2,7 per cent of 
the population have been mentioned as belonging, with- 
out qualification, to the capitalist class, but their power 
must not be measured by their numbers. This small 
percentage of the people control all the great avenues 
of trade, all the great instruments of production, all of 
the necessary processses of exchange, and not only 
have they been able thus far to maintain their position 
as the economic masters of the market, but also as the 
political leaders of the remainder of the people. The 
struggle for political mastery in this country in recent 
years has been between the people represented by the 
2.7 per cent and the 14.5 per cent of the population. 
The 82.8 per cent have been and are still without politi- 
cal representation in the councils of the nation. 

610. Economic Classes and Political Parties.— It is 
not accurate to say that the Eepublican party repre- 
sents the 2.7 per cent and the Democratic party the 
14.5 per cent, as has been frequently claimed. War- 
fare between the little business man and the big one, 
which has been going on in the market, has appeared as 
frequently in the councils of the Republican party as in 
those of the Democratic party, and in neither party has 
the American middle class been able to secure any such 
possession of political power as to secure for them- 
selves the political mastery of national affairs at any 
time in recent years. Still, the political leadership in 
the middle class, whether Democratic or Eepublican, 
just as in the case of the millionaire politicians, acting 
as the political leaders of 82.8 per cent of the people 
that is, of the working class, has been uniformly an 



Chap. XXXIII MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIALISM 455 

effort to secure the votes of the working class, not for 
the purpose of serving the economic interests of the 
working class, but for the purpose of serving the econ- 
omic interests of the middle class, or of the millionaire 
capitalists, as the case might be. 

611. Socialists and the Working Class.— The Social- 
ist movement is an effort to protect the working class 
from further middle class domination in this economic 
and politcal warfare. The Socialist movement is 
simply an effort to create a political party devoted to 
the championship of the economic interests of the 82.8 
per cent of all the people ; that is, of the working class 
as against ail others. The Socialist movement is an 
effort to create a political party which shall represent 
in politics the economic interests of these exploited 
workers rather than the economic interests of any 
share of the exploiters— great exploiters and small ex- 
ploiters being alike the object of attack. The Socialist 
movement is an effort to secure the organization and 
triumph of a political party which, because it will rep- 
resent in politics the economic interests of the exploit- 
ed only, will, when coming to power, have no share of 
its constituency economically interested in betraying 
the purposes which the party is created to accomplish. 

612. Middle Class Measures.— All political contro- 
versies between the millionaire capitalist and the 
American middle class capitalist have been carried on, 
not over an effort to abolish capitalism, but to so con- 
trol public affairs as to force the use of public author- 
ity either in behalf of the economic interests of the 
smaller capitalist or in behalf of the economic interests 
of the larger capitalist. These controversies are 
simply conflicts between groups within the same class, 
the capitalist class, to the total neglect of the exploited 
working class. The political controversy between the 
working class and the capitalist class is not one for 



456 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

reforming, remodeling, improving, capturing or using 
the political power in order to remodel and improve 
capitalism. It is for the more revolutionary purpose 
of utterly and absolutely putting capitalism out of ex- 
istence. 

613. Only Two Parties Possible.— The question 
then, as to the relation of* the middle class to the 
Socialist party is at bottom the question of the relation 
of the Socialist party to middle class measures ; that is, 
to measures for reforming capitalism for the benefit of 
a group of small exploitersx rather than for the aboli- 
tion of capitalism. The conflict between the working 
class and the capitalist class is so desperate, so deter- 
mined, so fundamental, and must be so all-absorbing 
that in the final encounter there can remain no stand- 
ing ground for any third party in American politics. 
The capitalists, reinforced by such workers as they can 
mislead,^ through the workers' ignorance of their own 
class interests, must constitute one party, and the 
working men who, comprehending the nature of their 
own economic interest, and understanding how resist- 
less is their political power if they will only use it in 
their own behalf, must constitute the other party ; and 
between these two there can remain no middle ground 
on which can be organized the forces for the third side 
of a triangular fight. All conflicts between big capital- 
ism and little capitalism will disappear in the midst 
of the warfare between the friends and foes of capital- 
ism. The middle class man will be unable to propose any 
middle class measures around which he can rally any 
political following of sufficient numbers to secure po- 
litical power for any program which will attempt to 

2. "The 'dangerous class/ the social scum, that passively rotten 
mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, here and there, 
be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions 
of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reac- 
tionary intrigue." — ^Marx and Engels: Communist Manifesto, p. 29. 



Chap. XXXIII MIDDLE CLASS AKD SOCIALISM 457 

antagonize the big capitalist on the one hand and the 
revolutionary working man on the other. 

614. Economic Interests Both Ways.— The middle 
class man, then, the small manufacturer, the small mer- 
chant and the small farmer, must simply take sides, 
one way or the other, between the exjoloiter and the ex- 
ploited. T\Tiich way will he go ? Bear in mind that we 
have assumed that he would go in the direction of his 
economic interests, and remember, if he moves in the 
line of his economic interests, it must be as between the 
workingman on the one hand and the millionaire on the 
other. There remains and there can remain no other 
alternative. The small merchant, small manufacturer 
and small farmer have economic interests in both direc- 
tions, but they can have dominant interests only one 
way. In proportion as they are producers, by the ser- 
vice of either mind or hand, they are victims of exploit- 
ation. In proportion as their income is derived from 
the fruits of the labor of others their economic interests 
are with the millionaire. Here is a farmer with forty 
acres of land employing a *^ hired hand'' occasionally 
to assist him in his farm work; a manufacturer with 
$3,000 invested employing a journeyman worker to 
assist him in his processes of production ; a barber, who 
not only works at a chair himself, but employs an as- 
sistant; a miner, who, having ^^ struck pay dirt," is 
employing another to assist him in bringing it to the 
surface. Now, in all these cases, the men are them- 
selves producers, and so far as they are producers, they 
are, together with all other workers, the victims of ex- 
ploitation; but they are also exploiters, and add, or at 
least attempt to add, to their income by wearing out the 
lives of others. 

615. Acting with the Capitalists.— Which line 
of their own conflicting interests will these men follow 
in the battle between Socialism and capitalism! Sup- 



458 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

pose they decide to follow their economic interests as 
business men, and hence, to identify themselves with 
the millionaire capitalists, as the small business men 
are doing, throughout the country, in joining the Manu- 
facturers' Associations, Employers' Leagues and Pro- 
tective Unions. What will be the probable outcome 
of such an alliance for the small business man I Either 
the whole philosophy of economic evolution, of indus- 
trial development, must fall to the ground, or there re- 
mains for the small business man nothing but destruc- 
tion at the hands of the large capitalists. In choosing 
between the Socialist and the capitalist, he is not choos- 
ing between the saving or the destroying of his small 
business. His small business is doomed under capital- 
ism, and he himself is doomed under capitalism, sooner 
or later, to fall into the ranks of the dependent and 
helpless wage workers, begging the millionaire for an 
opportunity to be employed. 

616. Acting with the Working Classes.— On the 
other hand, suppose he considers his interests as a 
worker. Is there any way by which he can deliver him- 
self from the exploitation of which he himself is now 
a victim! Is there any way by which he can protect 
himself from ultimately falling into the dependent, 
wage-working class. He certainly cannot do so under 
capitalism. There are no laws which can be enacted; 
there are no enterprises which can be undertaken; there 
are no political combinations which can be effected with 
other workers which can deliver the little business man 
from exploitation while he continues to work in his own 
shop, or can guard him from the coming humiliation of 
seeking an opportunity to live at the hands of the very 
persons who will have destroyed his own business. If 
he decides with capitalism, he decides in favor of con- 
tinuing to be exploited as long as he remains his own 
employer; and he must further decide to doom both 



Chap. XXXIIl MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIALISM 459 

himself and his children after him to economic depen- 
dence upon the very forces which are destroying his 
self-employing industry. His only deliverance from 
continued exploitation as a producer, and from ulti- 
mate dependence upon his own destroyers, must come 
from the destruction of capitalism and the inaugura- 
tion of the co-operative commonwealth. If he can se- 
cure the coming of Socialism soon enough he may he 
ahle to pass directly from self-employment in his own 
small business to self-employment in the co-operative 
commonwealth. If the members of his middle class 
would abandon all middle class measures and fight di- 
rectly for the industrial emancipation of all workers, 
including themselves along with the rest, they could 
save themselves both from the exploitation which must 
last as long as their self -employment lasts and finally 
from the dependent relations of personal mastery and 
servitude which awaits them on the destruction of their 
self-employing enterprises.^ 

617. Small Properties.— Until recently the defend- 
ers of capitalism have asked with great assurance how 
Socialism could ever be inaugurated, because the own- 
ers of small shops and small farms would never con- 
sent to being dispossessed of their property by the in- 
auguration of Socialism. This is no longer a difficult 
question. The trusts are either absorbing the small 
properties, or what is worse for the small property- 
holder, leaving the title in the hands of the owner, but 
rendering the property valueless in his hands. The 
Socialist does not propose to take the property away 

3. "The lower strata of the middle class — the small trades-people, 
shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and 
peasants — all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because 
their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which modern 
industry is carried, and is swamped in the competition with the large 
capitalists, partly because their specialized skill is rendered worthless by 
new methods of production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all 
classes of the population." — ^Marx and Engels: Communist Manifesto, 
pp. 24-25. 



460 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

from the self-employed, and so rob him of the opportu- 
nity of self-employment, in order to inaugurate the co- 
operative commonwealth. Self-employment is the very 
thing for which the Socialists are contending. The 
trusts are robbing all the people, either of their small 
holdings, or, indirectly, of the values of their small 
holdings. 

618. Exploitation at the Shop Door.— It is claimed 
that exploitation takes place at the shop door, and can 
take place nowhere else, and therefore it is inferred 
that those who do not work in shops can in no way be 
interested in the problem of exploitation. Exploita- 
tion does take place at the shop door ; it does take place 
in the processes of production, but production is never 
complete until the article is delivered, not only in the 
form, but at the time and place of its final consumption. 
Therefore, if we are to understand that exploitation 
takes place only at the shop door, the door of the shop 
must be placed so close to the door of the consumer that 
no value shall be added by any added service to any 
given article after leaving the shop of the producer and 
before entering the home of the consumer. Take an 
illustration : for instance, a box of oranges is sold and 
delivered to a consumer in Chicago for five dollars. 
The delivery boy is a wage-worker, is the victim of 
exploitation ; but what is taken out of his service is in- 
cluded in the ^ve dollars. The bookkeeper for the 
house which made the delivery is a wage-worker, the 
victim of exploitation, but what is taken from her pro- 
ducts is a part of the five dollars. The truck which 
hauled the oranges from the freight house is driven 
by a teamster who is working for wages, the victim of 
exploitation, but the sum taken from his earnings by 
his employer is a part of the five dollars. The freight 
agent, the brakeman, the conductor, the telegrapher— 
all along the line of shipment, the men who are engaged 
in repairing the track, or assisting in any way in bring- 
ing the oranges from California to Chicago, are all vie- 



Chap. XXXIII MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIALISM 461 

tims of exploitation. They are working for wages, they 
get only a share of the values they create, but the share 
they create and get and the share they create and do 
not get, are both included in the five dollars. The man 
who gathered the oranges, the man who cultivated the 
field, the man who planted and guarded the trees, the 
man who made the box, the man who made the lumber 
out of which the box was made, the lumberman who 
brought down the logs from the forest out of which 
the lumber was made, all are victims of exploitation. 
All were working for wages, or if not for wages di- 
rectly under the eye of a master, they are nevertheless 
dependent upon some share of the same five dollars 
for the reward of their labor. If they produce more 
than they get, both what they get and what they pro- 
duce but do not get, so far as related to this transac- 
tion, are included in this five dollars. The shop door at 
which exploitation takes place is not alone in Southern 
California ; it is not alone at the freight office either at 
that end of the transportation line or in Chicago ; it is 
not alone at the fruit store. All who had any share in 
growing, transporting and finally in delivering the or- 
anges to the last purchaser, who bought them, not to 
sell again but to consume them, so far as they helped in 
the process, were producers. So far as they did not 
help but took advantage of the private ownership of 
any share of the means of growing, transporting or 
delivering the oranges for the purpose of compelling 
the workers to create values which they could not keep, 
but which the private owners appropriated, all these 
are exploiters, and production and exploitation took 
place all along the line. The shop door at which ex- 
ploitation takes place is found at every place where 
the worker is separated from any share of the values 
which his toil creates. 

Possibly the teamster owns the team; possibly the 



462 CUERENT PROBLEMS Pabt V 

orange grower owns the patch of land, possibly the 
fruit dealer owns the store, but they all work long 
hours with small returns, and the values which they 
create are taken from them under the monopolies 
and wastes of modern capitalism. 

The millionaire who owns the road and who charges 
for carrying the oranges **all that the traffic will 
bear," may be the chief exploiter of them all; but 
whatever share of the final results go for rent, interest 
or profit, that share is taken away from the workers, 
and it is taken away from them in spite of themselves 
and under conditions in which they have no choice but 
to submit. And this is as true of the truckman who 
owned his team as of the delivery boy who rode in an- 
other man's wagon and drove another man's horse. 

How many of the workers from the orchard grower 
to the delivery boy can be relied upon in the fight for 
Socialism? Is there any deliverance for any one of 
them under capitalism! Is there any way out for any 
one of them except Socialism ? 

619. The Millionaire.— The millionaires who control 
the transportation lines, the freight depots, and the 
cold storage establishments may be conceded to be op- 
posed to Socialism, but there are many reasons why 
millionaires ought to be Socialists. The certain de- 
struction of the business interests of a part of them 
by the business triumphs of the others; the great un- 
certainty as to their own business future ; the greater 
uncertainty as to the future of their children, as com- 
pared with the widest opportunities for living the com- 
pletest human life, which will be guaranteed to all un- 
der the co-operative commonwealth, ought to appeal 
strongly even to the millionaires. But it must be re- 
membered that their economic interests, as million- 
aires, are strictly opposed to Socialism, and further 
that it is directly against these interests that Socialism 



Chap. XXXIII MIDDLE CLASS AXD SOCIALISM 463 

directs its attacks, and hence only such millionaires 
can be interested in Socialism as have other interests, 
as men, which to them are of more importance than 
their own careers as exploiters of other men. Xo mil- 
lionaire will become a Socialist because of his eco- 
nomic interests as a millionaire. 

620. Emptiness of the Master's Life.— Such mil- 
lionaires may be said to be the victims of capitalism 
in a sense in which the victims of exj^loitation are not. 
Xo one can know the emptiness and narrowness of a 
life whose sphere of activity makes imiDossible the 
comradeship, the fullness and gladness of normal 
human existence more than the millionaire who has 
been able to take the time and has had the ability to 
become disg-usted with the brutal game of trade. Such 
a man may well turn to Socialism as the only means 
of escaping from the limitations of a life which can be 
measured by dollars and of securing admission, at 
last, into the fellowship of rational human existence.^ 
But the Socialist party is not likely to get so much 
building material from this source as to call for any 
serious departure from the building plans and specifi- 
cations adopted with the understanding that the So- 

4. '■Undoubtedly there are bourgeois who from a feeling of justice 
and humanity piace themselves upon the side of the laborers and Social: 
ists. but these are only the exceptions: the mass of the bourgeoisie has 
class consciousness, a consciousness of being the ruling and exploiting 
class. Indeed, the mass of the boui'geoisie, just because they are a ruling 
class, have a much sharper and stronger class consciousness than the 
proletariat." — Liebknecht: Xo Compromise, p. 56. 

••Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, 
the process of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within 
the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, 
that a small section of the iTiling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the 
revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, 
therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the 
bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the prole- 
tariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who 
have raised themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the 
historical movement as a whole." Marx and Engels: Communist ilani- 
festo, p. 28. 

"The great number and variety of mutually related groups within 
the state considered as a whole is called societv in contrast with the 



464 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

cialist movement is primarily in behalf of the working 
class and solely and only in behalf of men as working 
men. 

621. The Riddle of the Middle Class. -But the 
middle class men who are both traders and producers, 
who are both exploiters and victims of exploitation, 
these men have economic interests both with the ex- 
ploiters and with the exploited. They can not follow 
their economic interests in both directions. They must 
elect to go one way or the other. As a class they are 
poorly informed in economic principles, deeply moved 
by their prejudices, insanely ambitious to be counted 
business men and so to be ranked with the class of the 
exploiters. All of these considerations would lead 
them to do as the great majority of them are doing; 
that is, act with the Manufacturers' Associations and 
Employers ' Leagues in their attacks upon the workers, 
and hence, in opposition to Socialism. All such middle 
class men are electing to follow such economic inter- 
ests as they have in common with the millionaire. 
They are lining up with the other capitalists in the eco- 
nomic class struggle against the workers and against 
their own economic interests as workers. But it is also 
true that many wage workers are affected by their 
prejudices and are influenced by their masters to act, 
both in the economic field and in the political field 
directly against their own economic interests, and the 
wage workers do so with no economic interests what- 
ever in common with their masters. Of the 14.5 per 

state. In this wider sense, society is not different from the state; it is 
the same thing viewed from another standpoint. But in a narrower and 
more acciirate sense of the word each group centering about some one or 
more common interests is a society. This double meaning often leads 
to confusion, which is made worse because social groups are not always 
separated by a hard and fast line. They overlap and intertwine so that 
the same men are bound to one group by one set of interests, and to 
another group by another set/'— 4>umplowicz : Outlines of Sociology, 
p. 138. 



Chap. XXXIII MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIALISM 465 

cent of the population which falls to the middle class in 
the classification adopted above, only the smallest per- 
centage of them gain as much by being exploiters as 
they are losing by being exploited, and hence only the 
smallest share of this 14.5 per cent of the people would 
side with the millionaires if, after informing them- 
selves as to the economic possibilities of Socialism, 
they would follow their own most important economic 
interests. 

629.— The Sifting of the Wheat.-The Socialist 
makes his appeal only to the victims of exploitation 
and has absolutely nothing to offer in the shape of 
economic advantage, to the middle class, or any other 
class, which can in any way protect their interests as 
exploiters. There is no possible way by which the 
members of the middle class can secure protection at 
the hands of the great capitalists, who are not only un- 
able to protect and perpetuate this middle class, but 
instead are actively engaged, not only in the destruc- 
tion of'this middle class, but even in the mutual de- 
struction of their own gigantic enterprises. (See 
Chapter X) 

The defenders of capitalism will call to their aid as 
many of the working class as they can mislead. They 
will win to their support in the political field as many 
of the middle class, while they proceed to destroy them 
in the economic field, as they will be able to keep in 
ignorance of their own economic interests as workers, 
—that is, they will control them through their igno- 
rance and prejudice after the same manner as they will 
secure the support of many wage workers who have no 
economic interests whatever in common with their 
maslters. 

Socialism can make no appeal to any one or to 
any class except to those who are the victims of ex- 
ploitatioii and whose interests, as victims of the ex- 



466 CURKENT PROBLEMS Part V 

ploiters, are greater than any possible advantage 
which can come to them as the fruits of exploitation. 
Socialism makes its appeal, then, to working class in- 
terests only ; it declares war on all exploiters, great and 
small, and depends for its support alone upon that vast 
majority of the whole population who are the pro- 
ducers of all wealth. 

623. A Call to the Workers Only.— Socialists then, 
may ask for the support of millionaires, but if they 
do they cannot do so on the ground that it is the pur- 
pose of Socialism to protect or enlarge the exploit- 
ing operations of the millionaires. A millionaire may 
be appealed to as one ''in sympathy with the working 
class," but in doing so, it must be borne in mind that 
no economic interest can exist, on his part, as the basis 
of his sympathy with these workers in the political 
field so long as he continues to be an exploiter in the 
economic field. 

Socialism may make its appeal to men who are 
both exploiters and the victims of exploitation, but 
their appeal must be to them solely and only as the vic- 
tims of exploitation, unless the economic basis of the 
argument is to be abandoned and the appeal be made 
to ' ' those in sympathy with the working class, ' ' rather 
than to those of the working class, and hence, whose 
greatest economic interest is at one with the working 
class. 

But the whole theory of economic determinism, as 
seen in Chapters 11 and III, shows the ineffectiveness 
of any appeal to other than dominant economic interests 
in any great controversy involving the economic inter- 
ests of great numbers of people as the very subject con- 
cerning which these great numbers are in dispute. 
Therefore, the watchword of the Socialist propaganda 
and the guiding principle of the Socialist organization 
must be an appeal to working class interests and to 



Chap. XXXIII MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIALISM. 467 

these interests alone; and hence, and of necessity, to 
all people whose working class interests can be shown 
to be of more serious concern to them than any eco- 
nomic advantage which they may enjoy under capital- 
ism. But this would include among those whose work- 
ing class interests are of greater importance than any 
other interests, ninety per cent of the farmers, includ- 
ing all of the farm tenants and farm hands, and the 
overwhelming majority of all the manufacturers and 
merchants with small capital and who work long hours 
in carrying on their enterprises. If these men do not 
act with the Socialists it will be because of their ignor- 
ance and prejudice— not because of their conflicting 
economic interests. They are workers whose economic 
interests as workers are of infinitely more importance 
than any economic interests they can possibly have as 
capitalists. 

624. Summary.— 1. In American economic discus- 
sions the self-employed working people, who are en- 
gaged in small farming, manufacturing and commer- 
cial enterprises, are spoken of as ^Hhe middle class." 

2. As capitalism approaches its culmination it de- 
stroys this middle class. 

3. As the Socialist movement advances the middle 
class men must take sides either with those who are al- 
together exploiters or with those who are altogether 
the victims of exploitation. 

4. The overwhelming majority of the self-employed 
working people, the American middle class, receive 
only the smallest share of their income from either 
rent, interest or profit. They find their greatest eco- 
nomic' losses from exploitation and can find their deliv- 
erance only through the coming of Socialism. 

5. Unless misled by ignorance or prejudice, just 
as the wage workers might be misled as to the real 
nature of their own economic interests, these economic 



468 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

interests will bring many of these middle class people 
to the Socialist party, and that solely because of their 
working class relations, not because they are ^4n sym- 
pathy with the working class," but because they be-,* 
long to the working class. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What is tlie origin of the term "middle class"? 

2. Give the English and European equivalents for this term. 

3. Do we have in America the same three economic classes as in 
Europe ? 

4. What people in America have come to be called the middle class ? 

5. What percentage of the people fairly belong to each of the 
three classes, the great exploiters, the self-employed who also employ 
others, and the wage workers, in the United States ? 

6. What relation do the economic interests of these classes 
bear to the current political parties? 

7. What relation does the Socialist party bear to the economic 
interests of all these classes? 

8. Why can there be only two parties in the final encounter between 
capitalism and Socialism? 

9. Show how and why the middle class has economic interests in 
common with both the other classes. 

10. What will come to the middle class should they act with the 
capitalists ? 

11. What if they act with the Socialists? 

12. Explain how exploitation takes place at the shop door. 

13. Will Socialism extend and protect the economic interests of 
either millionaires or middle class men as exploiters ? 

14. Are there any reasons of any sort why millionaires should be 
Socialists ? 

15. Are there any economic reasons why millionaires should be 
Socialists ? 

16. Are there any economic reasons why middle class men should be 
Socialists ? 

17! Are middle class men likely to follow their economic interests 
as working men? Why? Are wage workers misled for the same 
reasons ? 

18. To what people and to what interests may the Socialists appeal 
for support? 



CHAPTEE XXXIV 

THE TRUST, EVIPERIALISM AXD SOCIALISM 

625. The Evolution of the Trust. -In the tenth 
chapter of this volume the trust has been discussed as 
related to the evolution of capitalism. It is not neces- 
sary in this place to repeat the substance of that chap- 
ter. However, it should be read again in connection 
with this further consideration of the trust as a current 
political problem. 

626. The Problem and the Solutions Proposed.— 
It is admited by aU students that the trust presents a 
series of economic and political difficulties of the most 
serious importance. 

"What shall be done with the trust? The following 
measures have been proposed: (1) Publicity, (2) gov- 
ernment control, (3) limitation of the size of single 
industrial organizations, (4) putting trust-controlled 
articles on the free list, and (5) let the nation own the 
trusts. 

627. Publicity.— 1. As to publicity: It is every- 
where known and bitterly complained of, that the trust 
is taking advantage of their vast industrial, commer- 
cial and political power to monopolize all the means for 
producing the means of life for all of the people, and 
to prevent the use of these means of production except 

469 



470 CURRENT PROBLEMS Pabt V 

they be used by those wlio become the servants of the 
trusty and then only on such terms as the trust shall 
name. To hold that the misfortunes of the people inci- 
dent to the growth of the trust can be removed by a 
special effort to make more public the nature of these 
misfortunes is as absurd as to propose to cure a fatal 
disease by preparing charts for the instruction of 
the patient that he may more fully know how hope- 
lessly fatal is the nature of his malady. 

628. Government Control.— 2. As to government 
control: The fact is that those most interested in the 
trusts are also the ones most powerful in the control 
of the government. As long as the trust controls the 
government it must be true that government control 
of the trust is simply the trust controlling itself. If 
government control of the trust is to be anything more 
than a farce the first step to be taken must be to de- 
liver the government from control by the trust. This 
cannot be done by dividing the country politically 
along the line of the great trust on the one hand and 
the small business interests on the other. The working 
class must decide this question, and the small business 
interests cannot show the working man where any ad- 
vantage is to come to him by overthrowing the king of 
the trusts only to fall into the smaller, more petty, more 
insecure and more irregular employments at the hands 
of a thousand petty and competing masters. The only 
way the trust can be driven from the control of the gov- 
ernment is by offering to the whole body of the work- 
ing people for their own advantage all of the advan- 
tages of the great equipments, perfect organization and 
scientific management which have been made possible 
so largely by the development of the trust. This will 
never be done by any proposal of government control 
of the great enterprises in behalf of the smaller ones. 

629. Limiting Industrial Organization.— 3. As to 



Chap. XXXIV THE TRUST, IMPERIALISM, SOCIALISM 471 

limiting the size of single industrial organizations: 
This would simply mean that a millionaire would then 
be a stockholder in each of many companies, all of 
which he would control and all of which he would man- 
age with the same results to the rest of society as have 
come with the single trust. It might make book-keep- 
ing more troublesome, but it would not affect the re- 
sults.^ And then, again, the administration of the laws 
proposed would still be in the hands of the same peo- 
ple against whom it is proposed that they shall be 
enacted.^ If the government is to come under the con- 
trol of those really opposed to the trust the only class 
large enough to enforce such a change is the working 
class. The co-operation of the working class in a con- 
flict with the trust cannot be secured except the eco- 
nomic advantages which the trust makes possible shall 
be given to the working class themselves, but limiting 

1. "Permit me in this connection to show the futility of legislation 
made against the natural laws of trade or business by some historical 
precedents. 

"I maintain that all laws that have been made to prevent combina- 
tions of labor, to prevent combinations of manufacturers, to prevent com 
binations in produce or bread-stuffs, or to prevent what I may in a word 
call the free and unlimited exercise of commercial relations, or specula- 
tion in cereals or stocks, have been ineffectual and abortive, every one of 
them, and I challenge any one to point out to me in English or American 
history any statutes which have been passed to prevent these combina- 
tions that have proved effective. And the simple reason is, that the laws 
of trade, the natural laws of commercial relations, defy human legis- 
lation; and that is all there is in it. V\^herever the two clash, the statute 
law must go down before the operations of those natural laws. I could 
begin back as far as the reign of the Edwards in English history, and 
trace the statutes that have been passed against combinations of labor, 
against the combinations of the owners of produce, combinations of pur- 
chasers or of dealers in bread-stuffs, and I can show you that in every 
instance these laws have been abortive. Whoever has the desire can find 
plenty of these instances in history." — ^Dos Passos : Commercial Trusts, 
pp. 71-72. 

"To 'smash the trusts,' even if practicable, which may be doubted, 
would deprive society of mighty possibilities for good. The evils of 
industrial evolution are never solved by going backward." — Edward W. 
Bemis, quoted by Nettleton: Trusts or Competition, p. 153. 

2. "Society has practically abandoned — and from the very necessity 
of the case has got to abandon, unless it proposes to war against progress 
and civilization — the prohibition of industrial concentrations and com- 
binations." — ^Wells: Recent Economic Changes, p. 74. 



472 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

the size of the single industrial organizations will not 
give the economic advantages of the trust to the work- 
ing class. 

630. The Tariff and the Trust.— 4. As to putting 
trust-controlled articles on the free list: It has been 
seen, in the tenth chapter, that the trust is already an 
international organization in many lines of trade, and 
is rapidly becoming international in all lines of trade, 
and, with the great manufacturing establishments of 
so-called competing countries once owned by the same 
international trust, that then international competition 
is at an end. For with the trust controlling the mar- 
kets on both sides of the tariff line it will fix the prices 
for all countries, regardless of the tariff. No relief 
from the trust can come from reducing the tariff on any 
articles of any sort controlled by an international trust, 
and the international trust is already a serious factor 
in international trade.^ 

631. National Collective Ownership.— 5. As to the 
national ownership of the trust: The nation can own 
the trust just as soon as the working people take con- 
trol of the nation. It can be brought about in no other 
way. When that happens the working people will be 
able not only to dispossess the masters of the trusts 
from their control of the government, but from their 
possession, monopoly and management of the great in- 
dustries by virtue of whose existence the people live. 

632. The Motive for Action.— President Hadley of 

"Anti-trust acts have been so systematically evaded that they have 
degenerated into a means of blaokmail; and they have often been so 
injudiciously drawn that their enforcement would have paralyzed the 
industry of the community." — ^Hadley: Education of an American 
Citizen, p. 23. 

3. "But, on the other hand, as has been before said, it must be per- 
fectly evident that the removal of the tariff would not destroy in this 
country an industrial combination without first destroying its surviving 
rivals — while it might also very readily be in many cases the one incen- 
tive needed toward bringing about a world-wide combination against 
which tariffs could not avail."— Jenks : The Trust Problem, pp. 221-22. 



Chap. XXXIV THE TRUST, IMPERIALISM, SOCIALISM 473 

Yale University, says: ^^Most people object to trusts. 
Why ?^ Largely because they do not own them/' Pres- 
ident Hadley is right. Let all the people own the trusts 
and the trust problem is solved for all time. This 
proposal alone is in line with industrial development. 
This proposal alone finds a rational place and service 
for the trust in the order of the development of indus- 
try. This proposal alone can bring to its support peo- 
ple, sufficient in numbers, who are so distinctly mem- 
bers of another economic class than the class to which 
the members of the trust belong, that they can out- 
vote the trust and in so doing transfer the power of 
the government to the control of an economic class, the 
members of which will not be interested in defeating 
the public will as related to the trust. Such a political 
party would at once appropriate for the free and equal 
use of all the people all the economic advantages of the 
equipment and organization of the trust. Such a 
political party could and would do this in spite of the 
political power of those now in the trust. The working 
class is the only class whose members are without per- 
sonal interest in the private ownership of the trust and 
whose political power is great enough to destroy the 
political power of the trust. 

633. Completing the Social Revolution.— The mis- 
fortunes which follow in the wake of the trust cannot 
be remedied by the act of the government for the re- 
lief of any share of the people. Eelief can come to 
none except it be secured for all. The co-operation of 
the working class, in capturing the powers of the gov- 
ernment in order that these powers may be used to con- 
trol, tax, reform, or in any way seriously interfere with 
the work of the trust, cannot be secured for any pro- 
gram which will not deliver into the hands of the 

4. Hadley: Education of an American Citizen, p. 25. 



474 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

working class and for their own use and benefit both 
the powers of the government and the productive pos- 
sibilities of the trust. But if this were done, then both 
the industrial and political powers would pass from the 
handful of masters and be established at last in the 
hands of all the people. And when that happens the 
social revolution will be complete, for that is Socialism. 

634. A Resistless Current.— Our modem industrial 
and political life is moving on in a current which has 
come down to us through a hundred centuries. Its 
movement has been continuous, the current is unbroken 
and it is resistless. The issue is inevitable. Here is 
the order of its advance: 

635. Universal War.— It has been seen how, during 
the barbarian tribal wars, the tribes trespassed on. 
each other's territory because of the inevitable proc- 
ess of growth; how strangers were enemies; how the 
universal inter-tribal trespass caused universal inter- 
tribal wars; and how no such tribe, no matter how 
peacefully it was inclined, could refuse to go to war, 
and at the same time maintain its own existence. 

It has been seen in the same way how, under feudal- 
ism, as the feudal estates grew they were compelled to 
grow at each other's expense; and how this situation 
again led to war as universal as was the system of feu- 
dalism itself; how no single prince or lord could have 
avoided war; how the only terms on which any one of 
them could live at all, was either as the enemy or as the 
ally of some other lord. The same is true of the 
industry and commerce of today. One must fight the 
combination or combine, and there is no other alterna- 
tive.^ 

636. One World Military Power.— The ancient tri- 
bal wars once undertaken, could never stop without 

5. "The day is past when the automatic action of self-interest 
could be trusted to regulate prices, or when a few simple principles 



Chap. XXXIV THE TRUST, IMPERIALISM, SOCIALISM 475 

self-destruction until all tribes were brought either 
into alliance or into subjection. It was this situation 
itself which made the ancient world-powers inevitable. 
The final culmination of all in Eome was not the fault 
of Rome. Under the conditions of that stage of the 
world's growth and having the strength she had, Rome 
could only choose between conquering and being con- 
quered. 

637. The Family of Nations.— The modern nations 
of the world were reproduced from the fragments of 
the ancient Roman territory by the same process. 
They came into being through feudal development, 
conflict and conquest, which has stopped shor.t of 
creating a single political world-power only by com- 
promise, by establishing the ^^ concert of powers, '* by 
maintaining what is called a *' balance of power'* 
among the ^^ family of nations,'' by organizing a politi- 
cal trust for the express and avowed purpose of pre- 
venting any one of the powers from becoming the po- 
litical master of any or of all the rest. And yet this 
very * ^ concert of powers " is in effect the establishment 
of a one world-power, though in the form of subjection 
to a combination of masters rather than to a single mas- 
ter. 

638. One World Commercial Power.— While the 
governments have been balancing their extent of ter- 
ritory and strength of armies, and defending by treat- 
ies each other 's political existence, the industrial world 
has outgrown both the political and the military power 
as the dominant factor in the world life. The soldier 



of commercial law, if properly applied, secured the exercise of justice in 
matters of trade. The growth of large industries and of large fortunes 
enables those who use them rightly to do the public much better service 
than was possible in ages previous. It also permits those who use them 
wrongly to render the public correspondingly greater injury. No system 
of legislation is likely to meet this difficulty?' — President Hadley (Yale) : 
The Education of an American Citizen, p. 4. 



476 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

no longer commands the service of the trader nor dis- 
poses of the world's merchandise as he may choose. 
Industry and commerce rule the world. The soldier 
gives no orders to the counting room. He gets his or- 
ders from the counting room and delivers the spoils of 
war into the possession of the counting room.^ 

Between the competing manufacturing trusts of the 
earth, no ^^ concert of powers'' has yet arisen. If it 
should arise, it could only aifect the form of the final 
trust, not the fact of its final existence. As these 
great trusts which control the industry of millions of 
people and master the resources of whole continents 
come into conflict with each other, the old rule of alli- 
ance or subjugation is inevitable. The process of com- 
mercial conflict and expansion once undertaken, there 

6. "These great businesses — ^banking, broking, bill discounting, loan 
floating, company promoting — form the central ganglion of international 
capitalism. * * * No great, quick direction of capital is possible 
save by their consent and through their agency. Does any one seriously 
suppose that a great war could be undertaken by any European state, 
or a great state loan subscribed, if the house of Rothschild and its con- 
nections set their face against it? 

"Every great political act involving a new flow of capital or a large 
fluctuation in the value of existing investments must receive the sanction 
and practical aid of this little group of financial kings. These men, hold- 
ing their realized wealth and their business capital, as they must, chiefly 
in stocks and bonds, have a double stake, first as investors, but secondly 
and chiefly as financial dealers. As investors, their political influence 
does not differ essentially from that of the smaller investors, except that 
they usually possess a practical control of the businesses in which they 
invest. As speculators or financial dealers, they constitute, however, the 
gravest single factor in the economics of Imperialism. 

"To create new public debts, to float new companies, and to cause 
constant, considerable fluctuations of values are three conditions of their 
profitable business. Each condition carries them into politics, and throws 
them on the side of Imperialism. 

"The public financial arrangements for the Philippine war put sev- 
eral millions of dollars into the pockets of Mr. Pierpont Morgan and his 
friends; the China- Japan war, which saddled the Celestial Empire for 
the first time with a public debt, and the indemnity which she will pay 
to her European invaders in connection with the recent conflict, bring 
grist to the financial mills in Europe; every railway or mining con- 
cession wrung from some reluctant foreign potentate means profitable 
business in raising capital and floating companies." — ^Hobson: Imperial- 
ism, pp. 63-65. 



Chap. XXXIV THE TRUST, IMPERIALISM, SOCIALISM 477 

can be no stopping place until a commercial imperial- 
ism as wide as the world shall be established. 

639. Military and Commercial Imperialism.— The 
ancient Eoman imperialism captured and ruled and 
robbed the world by force of arms, and trade was only 
an incident to the business of war. Modem commer- 
cial imperialism is capturing the world in order to rule 
and rob the world by trade. The force of arms is only 
an incident to this warfare of commerce, and no indus- 
try will be able to avoid it. All must struggle for ex- 
istence, if they are to exist at all; and in the end none 
will be able to survive except in subjection to that com- 
bination which shall finally become the master of all. 
Having become the master of all, then that commer- 
cialism which is essentially military in its character, 
which came into the world through war, will have at 
last captured and equipped the world. 

640. Industrial Democracy.— Then a world-wide 
peace and industry more marvelously productive than 
sage ever dreamed or prophet foretold may come to 
all lands and to all the races of mankind. 

This is what capitalism will offer the world as its 
share in the growth of the race in the hour of its own 
collapse. And then collapse it must, for then the pros- 
perity of any part of the race, as the result of its con- 
quest of any other part of the race, will be no longer 
possible. 

Then capitalism must yield to a higher form of 
industrial organization, or the race itself, together 
with the greatest achievements of the race, must col- 
lapse together with the collapse of capitalism. 

This will be the culmination of long centuries of 
growth. It will be the lasting solution of the problem 
of the trust, and there is no other. But this is So- 
cialism. 

641. Summary.— 1. For the discussion of the trust 



478 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

as related to the evolution of capitalism see Chapter X. 

2. That the trust presents serious economic and 
political problems is everywhere admitted. 

3. Neither publicity, government control, limitation 
of the size of industrial organizations nor putting trust- 
controlled articles on the free list reaches the sources 
of the misfortunes associated with the trust. 

4. The trust is owned and controlled by an eco- 
nomic class, the exploiters. The same class controls 
the government. 

5. National collective ownership of the organiza- 
tion and equipment of the trust with the national gov- 
ernment under the control of the exploited class would 
transfer both the ownership and the control of the 
trust, together with all of its benefits, directly into the 
hands of all the useful people. But that is Socialism. 

6. The trust is the culmination of an age-long proc- 
ess of development. The same forces which have 
created the trust must carry the movement forward to 
the collective ownership of the trust, or the race must 
largely lose the fruits of the long centuries of growth 
which have culminated in the trust. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Give an account of the evolution of the trust. (Chapter X). 

2. What proposals have been made as a means of solving the eco- 
nomic and political problems presented by the trust? 

3. What of publicity? 

4. What of government control? 

5. What of limiting the size of industrial organizations ? 

6. What of the collective national ownership of the trusts? 

7. Why is the control of the government by the victims of exploi- 
tation necessary to the solution of the trust problem? 

8. Give an account of the military, political and commercial devel- 
opments which have produced the trust. 

9. Contrast military and commercial imperialism. 

10. Why is SociaJisin a final settlement of the trust problem? 



CHAPTER XXXV 

LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 

642. Mediaeval Towns.— We have traced the story 
of the mediaeval towns (Chapter VIII), and have 
noticed how they were held in contempt by the feudal 
lords, and how they were recognized and given char- 
ters by the kings. The towns had been occupied in the 
earlier period of feudalism only by those who were 
helpless; they were without influence, were unsani- 
tary, and, in every way, in conditions of great neglect. 

643. The Guilds.— It was in these towns that 
the ancient trade guilds were formed. At first they 
were simply groups of kinsmen, without formal organ- 
ization and existing as a sort of family affair, created 
solely for social purposes. It would seem that, being 
left out of the life of the castles, these groups were 
either a survival from, or a reversion to, the earlier 
social forms of barbarism or savagery, for under both 
savagery and barbarism kinship was the basis of all 
social, economic and political organization. Anyway, 
beginning with informal groups of kinsmen, they grad- 
ually advanced to more formal social organizations. 
They attempted to provide for the common welfare, 
for their members when ill, to provide religious cere- 

479 



480 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

monies and entertainments for the living, and to bnry 
their dead.^ 

In the efforts of these workers to provide for each 
other their organizations became industrial as well as 
social. The 'owns being in disfavor with their local 
lords, these guilds made application to the kings of 
the realm, from whom, it has been seen, they obtained 
charters, and were so placed under the protection of 
the general government. They were given authority 
to govern themselves, and so became civic and miltary, 
as well as industrial and commercial organizations. 
The whole guild was responsible for the civil conduct 
of all its members. If any member offended, the guild 
was answerable to the general government, and the 
offender was answerable to his guild. 

They organized along all lines of trade, built and 
fortified industrial towns, which were governed as 
industrial democracies. These towns were the founda- 
tions of the free cities, and made the begmnings for 
nearly all of the leading cities of modem Europe. 

In the organization of industry by these guilds long 
apprenticeships were required. On becoming an em- 
ployer, each master was permitted to employ only a 
limited number of journeymen and apprentices.^ All 
sorts of ordinances were established by the guilds, 
which so limited and controlled the production of 
wealth that when modem trade was mkde possible, by 
the extension of the conditions of peace, and the mod- 
ern military life was centralized by the invention of 
gunpowder, and so together created a demand for 
goods which exceeded the power of the guilds to sup- 
ply, a new method of production supplanted the guild 
organizations.^ 

1. Howell: Trade Unionism — "Rew and Old, Chapter I. 

2. Howell: Trade Unionism — New and Old, Chapter II.; and 
Greene: History of the English People, pp. 213-220. 

3. Howell: Trade Unionism — New and Old, Chapter III.; and 
Smith: Wealth of Nations, Book II., Chapter III. 



Chap. XXXV LABOH UISTiONS AND SOCIALISM 4&1 

644. The Wage System.— The peddlers, who had 
done an uncertain business under the preceding condi- 
tions of disorder, being unable to secure goods in 
sufficient quantities for the new jnarket from the guild 
manufacturers, became manufacturers themselves, and 
thus made the beginning of the factory system. The 
laborers under this new system of production were not 
able to engage in self -employing labor like the mem- 
bers of the builds, nor were they any longer able 
to secure a livelihood as serfs about the castles. 
They were runaway serfs, or serfs who had been 
evicted from the feudal estates, and were entirely 
without either the chances of the serfs in the country 
or the opportunities of the free self-employing labor- 
ers of the towns. They found themselves without any 
opportunity of earning a living, except as they became 
employes in these new factories, and as has been al- 
ready seen, in this helpless condition they bid against 
each other for an opportunity to be employed. This 
was the beginning of the wage system. 

645. Labor Organizations.— These homeless and 
helpless workers were not long in making efforts to 
organize. Their first efforts to do so were modeled 
after the old guilds,^ but there was no such opportunity 
for them to make a beginning then as had been af- 
forded the old guilds at the time of their beginning 
under the conditions of disorder, and especially by the 
protracted quarrels between the feudal lord» and the 
kings, and which secured for the old guilds the pro- 
tection of the kings as against the lords. The members 
of the old guilds, the proprietors of the new factories, 
the interests of the general government, as well as both 
tie prejudices and interests of the feudal lords, all 
conspired against the possibilty of these helpless work- 
ers achieving for themselves anything like the inde- 

4. Howell: Trades Unionism — New and Old^ pp. 29-34. 



482 CURRENT PROBLEMS Pabt V 

pendent self-support which had been achieved by the 
older guilds. They were forbidden by law to organize, 
and for some four hundred years it was a crime to be 
a member of a working man's organization.^ It was 
during these years of struggle, while the workers were 
excluded from the land, while they were utterly with- 
out support, except as they lived as hired men, while 
they were disfranchised and so without any voice in 
the affairs of the state, while their organizations were 
outlawed, and whoever plead their cause was de- 
nounced as a demagogue and hanged as a traitor, that 
those organizations which have grown into the modem 
labor unions were brought into existence. 

646. Great Service of the Unions.— There is no 
question that these labor organizations have rendered 
great service to the cause of labor. The right to or- 
ganize has been secured by them, the right of free 
speech, of public discussion of the interests of the 
workers by the workers themselves, the right to vote 
and so be a factor in the general government, and the 
right to strike are victories which have been secured 
more largely by labor organizations than by all other 
forces together, for the right to do these things under 
the protection of the law has been secured only by the 
action of those who organized, spoke and struck in de- 
fiance of the law. 

647. London Working Men.— When the English 
peasants, in revolt under Wat Tyler, reached London, 
the workers within the city, more than forty thousand 
strong, welcomed their coming, and the workingmen 
were masters until assassination and betrayal, the fa- 
vorite weapons of their masters, accomplished their 
overthrow.^ 

648. Fall of the Bastile.— When in France the final 

5. Howell^ Trades Unionism — New and Old, pp. 16, 38 and 45. 

6. Greene: History of the English People, pp. 266-269. 



Chap. XXXV LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 483 

battle of feudalism was to be fought out in ber great 
revolution, the secret organizations among the work- 
ers did ihe work which, in the hour of trial, destroyed 
the Bastile, and with it closed the story of a thousand 
years of one style of aristocratic torture. After the 
fall of the Bastile, and until Napoleon's artillery had 
swept the streets of Paris, there was not an hour when 
the vitality of the movement for liberty, which force 
finally crowded into a capitalistic republic, was not 
found in the strength of the disinherited and fearless 
workers.''' 

649. American .Revolution.— It was the working 
men's organizations of Boston which supported 
Samuel Adams.^ It was the working men's organiza- 
tions of Philadelphia which supported Benjamin 
Franklin. It was the working men and farmers who 
made up the army of Washington. It was the business 
interests which opposed the Eevolution, and which 
afterwards established a government for the protection 
of private property regardless of the general welfare, 
notwithstanding the constituional preamble declaring 
the purpose of the same government to be ' ' to provide 
:^or the general welfare. ' ' 

650. In the Civil War.— When the Civil War broke 
out, from the industrial centers whole regiments of 
soldiers were formed from the Labor Unions and from, 
the Turners ' Societies. It was the working men of the 
North who defended the Union, while capitalists were 
conspiring to rob it through fraudulent army contracts 
and to compel the creation of a public debt which 

7. Carlvle: French Eevolution, Vol. I., Book V., Chapter VI.; and 
Vol. III., Book VII., Chapter VII. 

8. As an indication of the important part the workingmen's or- 
ganizations had in the early political life of this country, it should 
be noticed that the word "caucus" is derived from the word "calkers." 
The "calkers" were the most important body of workingmen in Boston 
in the time of the American Revolution. Their trades meetings were 
so occupied with political matters that a primary political meeting has 
taken its name from them. 



484 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

would enable them to continue their plunder of the 
toilers forever, 

650. Story of the Class Struggle.— The class strug- 
gle began with the prehistoric tribal wars, and can end 
only when the laborers can be delivered from the in- 
heritance of industrial disaster handed down to them 
from the fortunes of barbarian warfare. This class 
struggle was shown in the servile rebellions, when slav- 
ery had been made the status of the working man. This 
class struggle was shown in peasant wars, when serf- 
dom had been made the status of the working man. 
This class struggle was shown in the Labor Unions and 
the strikes, when the wage system had been fastened 
on the toiler, when he had been robbed of any op- 
portunity to use the resources of the earth in his own 
right, had been refused the right to live without a mas- 
ter and had not been guaranteed even the right to have 
a master. The class struggle is shown now in the 
struggle for Socialism, which is no new thing in the 
world. It is the same old warfare, at last informed as 
to the nature of the rights of the toilers and equipped 
with the power of the ballot in the struggle to secure 
these rights.^ 

9. "There were probably not more than 120,000 men who had the 
right to vote out of all the 4,000,000 inhabitants enumerated at the 
first census (1790)." — Woodrow Wilson: History of the American 
People, Vol. III., p. 120. 

"The United States, in 1789, when its constitution was adopted, 
was a limited democracy. So, too, were the commonwealths. They 
continued limited democracies for one generation, but the United States 
for two. The limitation was of the franchise. Jefferson theorized that 
a man should vote because he is a man. The conservative party ad- 
ministered the franchise as the privilege of men who, by long residence, 
if they were not to the manner born, by religious belief, and by the 

possession of property, could be intrusted with so valuable a perquisite. 

* * * * 

"In the eighteenth century, those who questioned the justice of these 
qualifications were classed as the anarchists are classed now. * * * 

"By 1820, the struggle for the franchise was the chief issue before 
the country. In that year the political reformers in Massachusetts, 
led by Levi Lincoln, sought to change the basis of representation in the 
senate of that commonwealth from property to persons. Very distin- 
guished were the men who in the Massachusetts constitutional conver?- 



Chap. XXXV LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 485 

A study of Labor Unionism as related to Socialism, 
reveals tlie fact that both are incidents in this historic 
class struggle. Socialism is not a new fight in behalf 
of the workers, it is the same old class struggle adapt- 
ed to new conditions. The plans of Labor Unionism 
and the plans of Socialism differ only as the plans of 

tion of that year opposed that innovation. Most venerable in years and 
in service among them was John Adams, the author of the constitu- 
tion which they were called to amend. He asserted that the great 
object of government is to make property secure, and quoted freely from 
classic history to show that 'by destroying the balance between prop- 
erty and numbers, and in consequence, a torrent of popular emotion 
broke in and desolated Athens.' Therefore, to change the basis of rep- 
resentation in Massachusetts would cause a like desolation in that com- 
monwealth. In these opinions President Adams was supported by Jus- 
tice Story, but by none so ably or so successfully as by Webster, who 
spoke at length on 'property the basis of government.' 

"So satisfactory was this speech to Webster, both in its ideas and 
its form, that a week after its delivery he incorporated it almost un- 
changed in his Plymouth oration. 

"Tfie world has long been familiar with this classic. 

"Some leading passages seem now to belong to the political con- 
cepts of ancient times: 

"*If the nature of our institutions be to found government on 
property, and that it should look to those who hold property for its 
protection, it is entirely just that property should have its due weight 
and consideration in political arrangements. 

" 'Life and personal liberty are no doubt to be protected by law ; 
but property is also to be protected by law, and is the fund out of which 
the means for protecting life and liberty are usually furnished.' 

"He therefore concluded that property was the just and proper 
basis of government. Against Adams and Story and Webster, Levi Lin- 
coln and his political associates spoke in vain, and their propositions 

were rejected. Webster's speech was supposed to be unanswerable. 

* * * * 

"Ten years later [1830], in Virginia, the struggle for the franchise 
was a forlorn hope in the Richmond convention. Eighty thousand 
white male inhabitants of the commonwealth were disfranchised by 
the property qualifications in the constitution of 1776. These non- 
free-holders found expression of their ideas in the resolutions sent up 
to the convention by the non-free-holders of Richmond. Although not 
sympathizing with the spirit of this memorial. Chief Justice Marshall, 
a member of the convention, presented it, and afterward voted against 
its favorable consideration. 

"Two ex-Presidents of the United States, James Madison and James 
Monroe, and a future President, John Tyler, were also members. They 
opposed the abolition of the free-hold qualification for the elector. 

"Like John Adams in the Massachusetts convention ten years be- 
fore, like Kent and King in New York, like all the eighteenth century 
statesmen of America, Madison and Monroe drew their premises and 
their political analogies from the history of the Greek and Italian re- 
publics. 



486 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

a final campaign might be expected to differ from an 
earlier battle in the same general warfare. 

652 The Old Unionism.— Labor Unionism at one 
time refused membership to all but a limited few; 
it refused to take part in any political agitation, and 

"The separation of government from its true basis, property — and 
by property was meant land — would destroy the state. President Mon- 
roe, too feeble in health to continue as presiding officer of the conven- 
tion, made his last public utterance an expostulation against the exten- 
sion of the suffrage to non-free-holders. * * * 

"But the man on whose words the [Virginia] convention hung was 
Madison, and he thought that the rights of property and of persons were 
inseparable. Property was reliable; men were not. 

"If universal suffrage were granted, the majority would not suf- 
ficiently respect the rights of the minority. The influential members of 
the convention supported Marshall, Madison and Monroe. * * * * 

"Though deprived of their political rights, the eighty thousand 
non-free-holders of the commonwealth were subjected to all the burdens 
imposed by it. Though excluded from the polls, they were marshalled 
on the battlefield. Though they could not vote, they were good enough 
to be summoned to the defense of the state and of those within it who 
exclusively exercised the rights of franchise. 

"Experience had not shown that free-holders were a dangerous 
class. They were the mechanics and artificers in the commonwealth. 

"The denial of the right to vote had forced the young men of Vir- 
ginia to migrate to Western states, where such restrictions were not 
tolerated. * * * 

"Yet the non-free-holding white men of Virginia were not so fa- 
vorably situated as free persons of color in some of the Western states. 
Therefore they thought themselves justly entitled to the right to vote. 

"The convention thought otherwise, and the free-hold qualifications 
continued in Virginia twenty years more. 

"An unparalleled political enfranchisement [from 1800 to 1900] ex- 
tended the right to vote, Avhich in 1796 reposed in only one-twentieth 
of the population, but a century later in one-sixth of it — the nearest 
approach to universal suffrage in history." — Thorpe: A History of the 
American People, pp. 532 * * * 34; 536 * * * 38; 556. 

"On the eve of the Industrial Revolution, England in its social, in- 
dustrial and political organization was still mediaeval. The old view 
which regarded the whole system of social inequality as the divine 
order from the foundation of the world still held sway. The whole 
English political system was in the hands of the king and the great 
landed and commercial classes. Democracy in the modern sense had not 
yet appeared upon the political arena, for not over one person in five 
hundred had a vote." — Beard: Industrial Revolution, p. 53. 

"The essential cause of the growth of durable associations of wage 
earners must lie in something peculiar to the century. This fundamen- 
tal condition of Trade Unionism we discover in the economic revolution 
through which certain industries were passing. In all cases in which 
Trade Unions arose, the great bulk of the workers had ceased to be 
independent producers, themeselves controlling the processes, and own- 
ing the materials and the product of their labor, and had passed into 
the condition of life-long wage-earners, possessing neither the instru- 
ments of production nor the commodity in its finished state. From the 



Chap. XXXV LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 487 

asked for no labor legislation, and while seeking to 
establish the welfare of the workers it refused to take 
any advantage of the authority of the state.^^ Social- 
ism in the same way was at first attempted by limited 
groups of people, without regard to the welfare of the 
great mass of society, without any dependence upon 
legislation and independent of the authority of the 
state. The New Unionism of recent years has been con- 
tinuously enlarging the number of those to be included, 
and now includes within its program an effort to pro- 
vide for all workers within its organization. It is 
moreover represented in many ways in the political 
agitations of the time, has been clamorous for legisla- 
tion, and more and more makes itself a factor in poli- 
tics.^^ In the same manner Socialism has practically 
abandoned all efforts to secure the benefits of the co- 
operative commonwealth by constructing a little com- 
munity of its own within a larger community, and has 
no hope of securing the benefits of co-operation for any 
large portion of the workers, except provision shall be 
made for all. A hundred years ago the agitation which 
has finally ripened into the demand for Socialism at- 
tempted to realize its purpose without the interference 
of the state. Today the whole strength of the move- 
ment for Socialism is organizing to make itself felt 

moment that to establish a given business more capital is required than 
a journeyman can easily accumulate within a few years, guild master- 
ship — the mastership of the masterpiece — ^becomes little more than a 
name. * * * Skill alone is valueless, and is soon compelled to hire 
itself out to capital. * * * Now begins the opposition of interest 
between employers and employed; now the latter begin to group them- 
selves together; now rises the trade society, or, to express this Indus- 
trial Revolution in more abstract terms, we may say, in the words of 
Dr. Ingram, that 'the whole modern organization of labor in its advanced 
forms rests on a fundamental fact, which has spontaneously and increas- 
ingly developed itself — namely, the definite separation between the func- 
tions of the capitalist and the workman, or, in other words, between the 
direction of industrial operations and their execution in detail." — Webb: 
History of Trade Unionism — New and Old, p. 24. 

10. Howell : Trades Unionism — New and Old, pp. 74-82. 

11. Howell: Trades Unionism — New and Old, p, 193. 



488 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

throughout the world for the purpose of capturing the 
powers of the state, through political action, in order to 
use these powers to inaugurate the co-operative com- 
monwealth. 

653. The Hopeless Beginning.— At the beginning 
of the wage system the runaway serfs were hardly 
more helpless than the founders of the guilds had been 
in the early days of feudalism. The question has been 
raised why the early labor organizations at the begin- 
ning of the wage system did not themselves become 
productive organizations as had the ancient guilds at 
the beginning of the free cities. The answer is that 
the guilds were able to take advantage of the quarrels 
between the kings and their subject lords. At the be« 
ginning of the wage system the kings had become 
triumphant and there was no strong political authority 
of any sort with which the helpless workers could form 
alliances and thus secure the civil right to exist as 
productive organizations. At the beginning of the 
guilds the whole country was broken into small 
patches, each controlled by its local lord or petty 
prince, and whoever could get control of such a patch 
of the earth could possess and control the means of 
production within the territory lo possessed. When 
the wage system was established private possession of 
land and, hence, the complete control of the means of 
production, had been established in the hands of the 
few and the evicted workers could obtain no access to 
the means of production except as the hired workers 
of those who had possession of the earth and whose 
possession was now defended by the very authorities 
which had before both encouraged and chartered the 
guilds. At the beginning of the free cities the strong- 
est authority of the state found it to its advantage to 
permit guilds. At the beginning of the wage system 
tlie stror.??:t antl: or: ty of the state, instead of encour- 



Chap. XXXV LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 48d 

aging labor organizations, believed it to be to its ad- 
vantage to forbid their existence, and punished as trea- 
son to the state all efforts to effect such organizations. 

654. A World Movement.— In the same way it has 
been asked why Socialism cannot be organized as an 
original, independent, econmic creation after the same 
manner as the free cities of Europe were established 
in mediaeval times, and the answer is that the economic 
life of the world has grown to be a unit. There is one 
world market, to which all products must be brought 
for sale, and from which all the means of life must be 
obtained, and any efforts to organize industry or com- 
merce, made by small groups of people or by any na- 
tion not strong enough to do so in defiance of all other 
nations, even though it were a nation as active as 
the men of Cuba, or of the Philippines, or of South 
Africa, or as populous as China, must come to disaster, 
for neither political nor economic life is any longer 
possible, except as an active share of the life of the 
world. 

655. Unionism and Socialism.— The purposes of 
the Labor Unions are included in the demands of the 
Socialist. The Unions propose to shorten the day of 
labor, to increase the returns of labor and to provide 
for all workers within their organizations. Socialism 
seeks to do the same things. The Unions attempt to 
secure these things by the organization of the trades, 
by means of the strike and by the use of their power as 
a force in politics. Socialism goes directly to the civil 
authority and attempts by the union of all working 
men to take possession of the power of the state and of 
the means of production, and to jointly administer the 
joint affairs of all the people, including the organiza- 
tion of industry, and, through the political power of 
the working men, shorten the working day, increase 
the returns of labor to the utmost limit, as well as pro- 



490 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

vide an opportunity for securing such employment and 
such returns for the labor of all mankind. 

656. Scope of Service.— The Unions have been and 
are able to greatly benefit the workers in all lines of 
employment where the workers are limited in number, 
where practically all the workers in such an industry 
are members of the Union, and where the trade is one 
in which the employers are able to improve the condi- 
tions under which the workers toil. But if the workers 
are large in number and widely scattered, effective or- 
ganization is made very difficult. If a large number of 
workers in the same trade are outside of the organiza- 
tion and are ready to make terms individually with 
their employer, the men in the organization are contin- 
uously defeated by those without, or if the employers 
are so engaged that they are barely earning a living 
and are unable to improve the conditions of their busi- 
ness, a strike could ruin the employers without improv- 
ing the conditions of the workers themselves. All of 
those trades which require unusual skill are better able 
to secure advantages through Labor Unions than those 
engaged in common labor, because special skill limits 
the number, makes possible a completer organization, 
and such workers are usually engaged in employments 
which are themselves more profitable. 

657. The Schools and the Unions.— The industrial 
schools, however, are providing specially trained but 
unorganized workers. Machinery is supplanting the 
trades, and is setting the skilled and organized work- 
ingmen aside, not only for the unorganized and un- 
skilled men, but for the women and children, and final- 
ly the world-market is coming to be not only a market 
in which the price of the products of labor is deter- 
mined, but the price of labor itself. There are devel- 
oping with remarkable rapidity conditions under which 
the workers who are most poorly paid, most completely 



Chap. XXXV LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 491 

disorganized— in short, who are the most helpless in 
the hands of their employers— will be set to work on 
the other side of the earth producing for the markets of 
the world. Great as have been the achievements of the 
Unions, important as have been their services, the diffi- 
culties, which they encounter today are becoming every 
hour more serious. 

658. Socialism and Unionism.— Socialism is the 
logical outcome of the centuries of agitation, which has 
given us the great organizations of labor, and the tri- 
umph of Socialism will enlarge the scope, perfect the 
organizations and make them the political and eco- 
nomic masters of the world.^^ 

659. Shorter Hours.— There is not one purpose of 
modern Labor Unionism which is not also involved in 
Socialism. Socialism is the most effective proposal ever 
made for providing for the world's comfort and at 
the same time shortening the hours of labor. Under 
Socialism there will be no way by which any one can 
get anything out of the market unless he has had some 
share in putting something into the market. That 
means that all buyers must also be workers; it means 
that those who toil will no longer be required to 
lengthen their hours of labor in order to provide a 
living for those who do not toil. Again, under Social- 
ism all unnecessary labor will cease. It is impossible 
to estimate how great a saving this will be. One hun- 
dred stores render the services which one could render 
better, a dozen milkmen render the services which one 

12. "In short, the history of civilization is the history of freedom. 
* * * * It has not been by the theories of philosophers and law- 
givers that political institutions have been formed, but by the conflict 
of social forces in the several States. * * * They [the law-givers and 
philosophers] have given light and guidance to leaders of popular move- 
ments; but no laws or principles will avail until society is ripe for 
their acceptance. Rulers will not willingly surrender their power; nor 
can a people wrest it from them until they have become strong enough 
to wield it." — ^May: Democracy in Europe, Vol. I., Introduction, pp. 
xxii., xxiv. 



492 CURRENT PROBLEMS Paet V 

could render just as well. The complete organization 
of the distribution of goods will effect a saving in the 
amount of labor required, which would be beyond cal- 
culation, and all this labor saved from doing needless 
work would at once be available to reinforce the doing 
of the necessary work, and so further shorten the day. 
Again, most men toil with imperfect tools, in badly- 
managed industries, in small enterprises. Under So- 
cialism they will have the best equipment, the largest 
possible organization, and all industry will be car- 
ried on under scientific methods, and so under Social- 
ism the labor which must now be performed to take 
care of those who are idle, the unnecessary labor result- 
ing from bad organization and the ineffective labor 
caused by the use of poor tools and rude equipment will 
all be saved and will all be available for shortening the 
day. The demand of the Labor Unions for shorter 
hours can never be realized to its fullest possibility un- 
til the world 's work shall be undertaken with the com- 
pletest equipment and the most perfect organization, 
and these are possible only under Socialism. 

660. Increased Rewards.— Again, the Labor Unions 
demand increased rewards for the laborers. Under 
the wage system no matter how much the wages may be 
increased, they must always be less than the total prod- 
uct. If the workers were given the total value of the 
product of their labor in wages there would be no 
profits for the management, and a lockout would fol- 
low; or there would be no interest for the capitalist, 
and a foreclosure, and hence, a lockout would follow; 
or there would be no rent for the landlord, and hence, 
eviction, and again a lockout would follow. The only 
way labor can be employed at all for wages is that the 
laborer shall receive as his reward less than his labor 
produces. But under Socialism the landlord, the capi- 
talist and the private manager do not need to be pro- 



Chap. XXXV LABOK UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 493 

vided for. The only claimant against the products of 
labor would be the laborer himself. The returns for la- 
bor can never be in excess of the total product. Under 
Socialism they can never be less than the total product, 
and so, again, this demand of the Labor Unions can 
never be secured to the fullest extent except by the 
triumph of Socialism. 

661. Employment for All.— Again, and finally, the 
Labor Unions demand that the workers in any trade 
shall come into the organization of that trade and bear 
their share in fighting its battles if they hope to share 
in the advantages of the trade, but they have no means 
by which a demand so reasonable and so just can be 
enforced among all workers everywhere. The inter- 
national development of industry brings into the labor 
market all the workers of the earth. Not unless the 
African, the Chinaman and the Filipino can be made 
effective members of an international Labor Union will 
the Unions be able to any effective degree to direct the 
laborers in the production of the great staples of the 
world's market. 

662. The International Competitor. — The ' ^ scab ' ' is 
no longer the unorganized and hungry worker, waiting 
at the factory gate. He is a whole race of men, ig- 
norant, sullen, unorganized, overpowered by the inter- 
national soldier and terrorized by international agree- 
ment, beyond the reach of the walking delegate, toiling 
under the direction of the international trust, pro- 
ducing for the trust-ruled and international market, 
which acts under the protection of the new interna- 
tional imperialism. The Labor Unions cannot bring' 
deliverance to the workers away from home until they 
come to possess the fullness of power at home. They 
cannot do effective missionary work among the work- 
ers of other lands while the authorities of their own 
countries conspire to enslave the less powerful peoples. 



494 CUERENT PROBLEMS Part V 

All the workers of the world can never be pro- 
vided for within the labor organizations nntil these or- 
ganizations shall be enlarged, perfected and made both 
the political and economic masters of the countries in 
which they exist. To this end the Unions mnst ad- 
vance in two directions : 

663. Industrial Organization. — 1. Formerly em- 
ployers employed only those working at a single trade, 
as carpenters or masons. Then trade unions covered 
separate trades only in order to deal with their sepa- 
rate masters. Now the same employer engages men in 
many trades but in the same industry. If the workers 
are to deal effectively with their single employer, they, 
too, must in some way come into a single industrial 
organization.^^ This is unquestionably the strongest 
form of labor organization for effective work in deal- 
ing with the masters. It is further an advantage in- 
asmuch as the development of Labor Unions along 
the line of the great industries is making the begin- 
nings under capitalism of the very organizations most 
likely to constitute both the industrial and political 

13. On the Continent of Europe the Socialist movement came first 
and the present trades unions afterwards. The modern industrial develop- 
ment created the Socialist movement and, naturally enough, the boundaries 
between the Continental Unions were made along the lines of the in- 
dustries. In Germany there are only fifty-four unions, but all the work^ 
ers can find a place in some one of these great industrial organizations. 
In Great Britain and in all English speaking countries the trades unions 
came first and the Socialist movement came afterwards. But the 1,064 
different British trades unions are rapidly consolidating into only fifteen 
great industrial combinations and all these into one United Labor Fed- 
eration with power to act. The same movement is the most marked 
development in the trades unions of the United States, of Australia and 
of New Zealand. In New Zealand the political organization of labor 
is made up of departments based on the same industrial boundary lines. 



Chap. XXXV LABOE UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 495 

subdivisions in the actual administration of affairs in 
the beginning of the co-operative commonwealth. 

664. Must Administer the Government.— 2. They 
must capture and directly administer the affairs of the 
state. The political power which now speaks for in- 
ternational imperialism must proclaim instead for in- 
ternational brotherhood. With the prestige of the tri- 
umphant organization of the most advanced peoples 
the organized working men must go to the more back- 
ward races. They must not go with the mission of op- 
pression like the present rulers of the world. They 
must not go with the helpless and hopeless cry of dis- 
content, as they must do if they go abroad before they 
conquer at home. They must go with the strength and 
power of the new civilization behind them. This is the 
program of the Socialists as well as the dream of the 
Labor Unionist, for the Socialist teacher will teach the 
new lesson and the Socialist army and navy in its final 
contest with capitalism will dispose of the oppressor 
and then dispose of the militarism which made the op- 
pressor in the first place. Unless Labor Unionism shall 
ripen into Socialism the ''scab" will become the ulti- 
mate worker in international industry. Under Social- 
ism all men will be provided for by the direct organi- 
zation of industry for that purpose, and the hungry 
and idle worker can no longer be found to bid against 
and beat down the standard of living of those em- 
ployed. And so it is seen that Socialism provides the 
only way by which the purposes of the Labor Unions 
can be fully realized, the shortened day, increased re- 
turns and provision for all the workers within the 
organization. The ' ' scab ' ' must continue to appear as 
long as the sore remains. Socialism alone proposes to 
heal the robbed and wounded toilers of the world. 

665. In Politics.— If the labor unions are to capture 
the power of the state they must go into politics to do 



496 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

SO. There are three ways for the unions to be active in 
politics : 

666. The Labor Lobby— 1. They can act through 
a labor lobby seeking to secure favors at the hands 
of congress while congress is controlled by the same 
industrial masters against whom the workers contend 
at the shop door. Some advantages have been secured 
in this way. But the chances for accomplishing any- 
thing in this way grow less as the class struggle grows 
more intense and the class lines are more closely drawn 
in the adminstration of affairs at Washington. 

667. Endorsing Candidates.— 2. The unions can 
endorse Eepublican or Democratic candidates. Such 
a candidate if elected and called upon to act in office 
for or against the masters in the shops will be obliged 
to betray either the masters or the working men. If he 
betrays the working men they usually forget. If he 
betrays the masters it means his political and usually 
his industrial ruin. He was pledged to both in order to 
secure his election. Being elected he can serve only 
one, and he usually serves the masters.^^ If the whole 
party could be captured and made a working man's 
party outright, driving from its ranks all masters and 
attracting to its ranks all working men, that would be 
a different matter. But that is not possible because 
the masters are in control of the organizations of both 
the Democratic and Eepublican parties and the ma- 
chinery of neither party can be captured by the work- 
ing men. 

668. The Shop Door and the Ballot Box.— 3. The 
Unions can refuse to go into politics, can abolish their 

14. "At the Oberlin Sociological Institute, in Ju^e, 1895, Dr. Wash- 
ington Gladden and Hon. Carroll D. Wright concurred with the author 
in the statement that neither the Interstate Commerce law nor the Anti- 
Trust law had any enforcement worth mentioning, except against labor, 
to which they were not intended to apply."-— Crafts : Practical Christian 
Sociology, p. 128. 



Chap. XXXV LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 497 

lobby and forbid all partisan endorsements by the 
unions as such, leaving its members free to act as they 
may elect while the Unions teach the principles for 
which the Unions stand and urge all their members 
to vote for these principles whenever presented to them 
at the ballot box. And the members of the unions, as 
citizens, can co-operate with all others who stand for 
these same principles, whether in the Unions or not, in 
building and in making triumphant at the ballot box 
a political party of working men. 

669. Union Not a Political Party.— It is frequently 
urged that the Unions nominate their own tickets and 
act directly as a political party. In this way it has fre- 
quently carried local elections. 

But the trouble with this is that it makes the Union 
a political party in all matters of controversy at the 
shops divdes the workers and embarrasses its work as 
a Labor Union. As a political party it is difficult to 
secure the support of the whole body of the working 
men at the ballot box when it is known that the party 
is answerable to only a portion of those who vote its 
ticket rather than to all. Again, the working man's 
party must be national and even international if it is 
really to serve the interests of the working class. The 
Socialist party is already in the field in all the coun- 
tries of the world where Labor Unions exist. The plat- 
form Qf the Socialists is the only possible working pro- 
gram for a working man's political party. Seven mil- 
lions of voters are already voting the Socialist ticket. 
The Labor Unions are everywhere teaching their mem- 
bers the same principles for which the Socialists are 
contending at the ballot box. 

670. A Working Program.— All Socialists ought to 
stand with the Unions for these principles in every 
encounter of the workers with their masters. All 
Unionists ought to stand with the Socialists for these 



498 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

same principles at the ballot box. Acting through the 
Unions, working men must win the greatest imme- 
diate advantage in hours and wages and so develop 
the Union organization along industrial lines that 
when the same working men, acting through the So- 
cialist party, shall have displaced the masters, now 
in political control, then their industrial organizations 
will be found to be in the best possible condition for 
the direct organization and management of the great 
industries under the co-operative commonwealth. But 
the Socialist party, or some party standing for the 
same principles as the Socialist party,— and that would 
be a Socialist party— must win political control of all 
the nations of the earth in order that the growing in- 
dustrial organizations of the workers may enter upon 
the possession and management of these industries. 
In no other way can collective ownership, democratic 
management and equal opportunity to be employed be 
won for all the workers. 

671. Summary.— 1. The ancient guilds were a de- 
velopment of their own times. They rendered impor- 
tant services to the growth of society. They lost power 
in the world with the passing away of the conditions 
which caused their existence. They could not exist 
under present conditions, and their existence would not 
now be desirable if it were possible. 

2. The labor organizations which s.ucceeded the 
guilds and have grown into the modem labor unions 
have been both industrial and political pioneers and 
have been the most effective factors in the struggle for 
the rights of the toilers. 

3. The Labor Unions are asking for labor legisla- 
tion, and do not hesitate to use their power in politics. 

4. The administraton of labor laws, through the 
courts and by other public officers, is quite as impor- 
tant as the enactment of these laws in the first place. 



Chap. XXXV LABOR UNIONS AND SOCIALISM 499 

5. The legislators and the courts, and all the of- 
ficers from sheriff to president, who have to do with 
the enactment and enforcement of laws, can be con- 
trolled in no other way than by controlling the political 
party which elects them. 

6. The management of the Eepublican and Dem- 
ocratic parties and of all political parties anywhere 
now in control is composed of capitalists. These par- 
ties are controlled by capitalists, in the interests of 
capitalism, and cannot be nsed to carry ont the pur- 
poses of the Labor Unions. 

7. Socialists are organizing and hope to make 
triumphant a political party composed of workingmen, 
supported by workingmen, and so controlled by work- 
ingmen. Such a party cannot fail to do the bidding of 
the working men, and the working men are every- 
where so largely in the majority, as compared with 
the rich and idle, that whenever they can be made to 
understand the situation and combine for action, they 
will constitute a more resistless political and economic 
force than has yet been known in history. 

8. Socialism is the final form of the warfare which 
the Labor Unions have all along been carrying on. So- 
cialism is the logical and necessary outcome of Labor 
Unionism. 

9. Every Socialist should be a member of a Labor 
Union. He should be loyal to the organizations which 
have accomplished so much in the past and which mean 
so much for the future. He should have his share in 
fighting its battles, winning its victories, and in fixing 
its policy as related to the final struggle for the eman- 
cipation of labor. 

10. Every Unionist should be a member of the So- 
cialist party. Unionism having fought the battles of 
labor until with a day's journey of the final victory, 



500 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

the IJnioiiist ought to fall in line for this final fight for 
the full possession and the free use of the means of 
producing the means of life. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Give an account of the ancient guilds. 

2. Why could not the labor organizations under the wage system 
repeat the history of the guilds? 

3. Trace the class struggle from prehistoric times and state what 
form it has taken under each new status of the workingman. 

4. How and why will Socialism end the class struggle? 

5. How are the plans of Socialism and of the Labor Unions related 
to each other? 

6. Show how both Labor Unionism and Socialism commenced with 
wholly voluntary organizations and have extended their plans to in- 
clude political action. 

7. In what ways have the Unions advanced the cause of labor? 
Under what conditions can the Unions improve the conditions of the 
workers ? 

8. Show why the shortest possible day and the largest possible re- 
turns for labor are impossible under the wage system. 

9. Why cannot all the workers be provided for within the Unions 
and under the wage system? 

10. How can Socialism shorten the day of labor, increase the re- 
wards of labor, and provide employment for all the workers? 

11. Why must the Labor Unions possess and use the full power of 
the state at home before they can protect themselves from unorganized 
labor abroad? 

12. Why is the party of Socialism the only party which can carry 
out the plans of the Labor Unions? 

13. Why should all Socialists be in the Unions and all Unionists 
be in the political party of the Socialists? 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

MUNICIPAL MISRULE AND SOCIALISM 

672. Majority Always for Good Government.— City 

governments are everywhere corrupt. It is claimed 
that this is because of bad men; but the city govern- 
ments are everywhere corrupt and are each year grow- 
ing more corrupt. It is hardly true that men are every- 
where bad and each year growing worse. A man does 
not need to be a very good man to want decent city gov- 
ernment. He does not need to be even good enough to 
be anxious to behave himself. He only needs to have 
sense enough to want other people to behave, far 
enough at least so that they will not rob him, nor mis- 
manage the schools, nor neglect the sewers, nor protect 
the criminals, nor leave the city in a general way in 
an unsanitary and disorderly condition. All of these 
considerations are necessarily of importance to all of 
the people. Without doubt, the overwhelming major- 
ity of all of the people in all of the cities desire good 
government. Why are they not able to secure it 1 

673. Both Parties Alike in City Rule.— The Demo- 
crats claim it is the fault of the Republicans, the Re- 
publicans claim it is the fault of the Democrats, but 
the democratic and republican cities are alike corrupt. 
Temporary independent political organizations, com- 

501 



502 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

posed of men who are either Eepublicans or Democrats 
in state and national affairs, contend that it is the fault 
of both parties. But independent political parties 
have never been able for any great period of time to 
greatly improve municipal adminst rations. It cannot, 
therefore, be the special fault of either party as com- 
pared with the other. We must look for the cause 
somewhere beyond the bad character of individuals, or 
the unusual corruption of any political party as com- 
pared with any other political party. 

674. Corrupt Social Forces.— As in all other social 
and economic problems, it is a study of social and eco- 
nomic forces, not a study of persons, which must be de- 
pended upon for a solution. There are four such forces 
necessarily corrupt and present in all modern cities. 
They are the tax dodgers, the private corporations en- 
gaged in rendering public service, the professional 
politicians, and the purchasable voters. (See Chapter 
XXXVII for fuller discussion of taxation.) 

675. Tax Dodgers.— The great private properties in 
all the cities are always endeavoring to escape their 
share of the public tax by controlling the public offi- 
cials whose duties are to justly assess and to promptly 
collect these taxes. 

676. Corporations.— These corporations are the 
creatures of society. They are brought into existence 
by the authority of society for the express purpose of 
rendering to the members of society a purely social 
service. We are told that these corporations ought not 
to be active in politics. They cannot come into exist- 
ence without securing franchises, and they cannot se- 
cure franchises without going into politics. The fran- 
chises are granted by a political body, and franchises 
cannot be secured from such a body except by ap- 
proaching that body in some way. And whatever 
method of approach is adopted, no matter whethei^ 



Chap. XXXVI MUNICIPAL MISRULE AND SOCIALISM 503 

honorable or dishonorable, brings the parties who are 
securing the franchises into contact with and into busi- 
ness relations with a political body. It brings them 
into politics. When such a franchise has been granted, 
and the corporation is engaged in performing some 
public service, the same political authority which 
granted the franchise will have the legal power, under 
the pretense of protecting public interests, to continu- 
ously interfere with the management of the business 
which the corporation has been created to carry on. 
If the corporation, then, is to pay dividends, is to se- 
cure to its stockholders and the management the larg- 
est possible returns, the management of the corpora- 
tion must provide in some way the means by which the 
corporation can control its own affairs. Either the 
municipal authorities must control the corporation or 
the corporation must control the municipal authorities. 
And this is true without any regard whatever to what 
political party is in power, or to the character of the 
men in the corporation or in public office. Either the 
corporation must go into politics to secure its franchise 
or stay out of business. Once in business, the corpora- 
tion must continuously stay in politics in order to pro- 
tect itself from continual interference on the part of 
public authorities, or it must stay in politics in order to 
control the public authorities.^ 

1, "It is doubtless true that in many cases large sums are paid by 
corporations to affect in some way or other the actions of legislatures. 
The officers of the corporations or their friends, if they speak at all 
on the subject, are likely to say that 'strike' bills are frequently intro- 
duced in the legislatures for the especial purpose of threatening their 
interests, in order that certain of the members may be paid to withdraw 
the hostile bill; and that it has been found both cheaper and much 
more effective to pay the very few people who employ this blackmailing 
plan than to attempt to defeat the hostile bill by fair argument. It 
seems also to be true at times that a bill which may be entirely proper 
and even beneficial to the public in its nature, but which also favors 
particularly the interests of some of the larger corporations, may 
be opposed by the party leaders or by individual representatives, until 
an amount of money has been paid either to party managers or to 
enough individual members of the legislature to secure the passage of 



504 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

677. Professional Politicians.— In speaking of pro- 
fessional politicians no reference is made to the large 
number of public- spirited citizens who are all the time 
endeavoring to protect public interests from private 
abuse or to improve the general character of public in- 
stitutions. No one will dispute, however, that in every 
city there is a very large number of citizens who have 
no convictions on public questions, no public interests 
of any sort, no reason whatever for being either Demo- 
crats or Republicans, and whose sole interest in poli- 
tics is to secure for themselves the spoils of public of- 
fice. It is rare indeed that any municipal convention 
held by either of the great political parties ever escapes 
from the control of politicians of this variety. All 
questions of public interest, of political importance and 
of general party policy are held secondary to the per- 
sonal advantage of these self-seeking politicians. 

the bill. Not long since a bill which was said to be entirely in the 
public interest, as well as in that of one of the large corporations, 
could be passed in the legislature of one of our larger states, it was re- 
ported, only by the payment of $150,000 to the leader of the party in 
power. Some of the larger corporations, business men say, expect to 
set aside for such uses a considerable sum to be charged to business ex- 
pense. 

"Before a committee of Congress, Mr. Havemeyer testified that the 
American Sugar Refining Company contributed in some States to the 
campaign fund of the Republican party, in others to that of the Demo- 
cratic party, the intention being to stand well with the dominant party 
in each State."— Jenks : The Trust Problem, p. 190-192. 

"The corporations concerned with our great local monopolies are so 
closely associated with municipal government as to complicate all prob- 
lems of reform and improvement. This is inevitable so long as present 
arrangements continue. This is, indeed, the great evil in private owner- 
ship of public utilities. This private ownership results in an antag- 
onism of interests between the most powerful classes in cities, and the 
cities as a whole. It is absolutely inevitable that a city should exercise 
a measure of control over the corporations which furnish public utilities. 
It is also absolutely inevitable, with human nature as it is, that these 
corporations should enter politics, in order to prevent this control from 
taking forms which they look upon as hostile to their interests. One 
peculiarity of the situation is this: That the strongest elements in the 
community are directly and indirectly interested in these private cor- 
porations. 

"We continually hear complaint made about the apathy and in- 
difference of our best citizens. It seems strange that it occurs to people 
so seldom to inquire into the underlying cause of this apathy and in- 



Chap. XXXVI MUNICIPAL MISRULE AND SOCIALISM 505 

The spoils of office do not consist of the salaries only. 
There are franchises to be given away, so far as the 
public is concerned, but to be sold for a consideration, 
so far as the corporations and the politicians are con- 
cerned. There are tax dodgers to be protected and 
assessors and boards of review and of equalization to 
be rewarded for giving protection. There are con- 
tracts to let involving vast sums of money and public 
interests of the greatest importance. There is hardly 
a city where private contractors engaged in improving 
streets, or building sewers, or lighting the city, do not 
exercise more political influence than all the schools, 
churches and editors combined. But the placing of 
these contracts is an important part of the public serv- 
ice, and the man in office is in a position to betray the 
public in the interest of the contractor engaged in con- 
structing or improving public works, and then to 
compel the contractor to divide the spoils. Again, there 
are jobs to distribute, and this does not mean simply 
the men whose names appear on the public pay-roll. 
The employes of the private corporations in the great 
cities are largely engaged on the recommendation of 

difference. We might, indeed, first of all, ask the question: Are we not 
combining altogether contradictory terms? Is it possible that a citi- 
zen can be at the same time a good citizen and apathetic and indif- 
ferent about the character of the government of the city in which he 
lives. If the citizen were really a good citizen, would he not exert him- 
self in behalf of his city, his state, and his country? Passing by, how- 
ever, any reflections of this kind, is it not natural to suppose that there 
must be some underlying cause for this apathy and indifference? Is it 
not quite possible that in many cases these best citizens are gaining 
more than they lose by precisely the kind of municipal government 
which exists at the present time? A distinguished divine, in an address 
before the Marquette Club, of Chicago, expressed himself as follows: 
'If we were to awake to-morrow morning and find that all the aldermen 
in the city hall were honest men, a lot of our most respectable citizens 
would be found running around town like chickens with their heads cut 
off, seeking to protect the franchises their attorneys have plotted and 
schemed and bribed to get for them. You say^ our intelligent men, 
wealthy men, our brainy men, should be aided in this reform. It is 
our intelligent men who are looting the community. They don't want 
municipal reform. Present conditions are too profitable,'" — Ely: The 
Coming City, pp. 66-69. 



506 CURRENT PROBLEMS PABTfV 

the mayor, the aldermen or the ^'strongest man" in the 
various wards. Thus it is seen that the salaries at- 
tached to the public offices, the prices paid to office- 
holders for public franchises, the commissions to the 
public officer for the placing of public contracts, and 
the advantage a political adventurer has of being able 
to play the role of an employer because of his relations 
to the corporations, are all sources of income and 
means of power for this great group of professional 
politicians. 

678. Purchasable Voters.— The purchasable voters 
are a much larger group than those who sell their votes 
for dollars or for drinks. Corporation employes who 
hold their positions on the recommendation of active 
politicians, as well as the great group of public em- 
ployes, are directly interested in the results of mu- 
nicipal elections, because their employment is directly 
involved. But there is a much larger and a more pow- 
erful group of voters even than these who are essen- 
tially purchasable, and in whose case the consideration 
is neither free dollars nor free drinks. There is a large 
number of people in every great city who earn their 
living in lines of employment subject to police control. 
The business may be regularly licensed and perfectly 
legitimate, as the business of an expressman, or it may 
border on the criminal line, that is, because of its char- 
acter or the character of its patrons, it may be directly 
connected with the lawless portions of the community. 
It is of the greatest importance to all persons doing 
business under a license of any sort to keep the peace 
with the police department; it is of the greatest impor- 
tance to those engaged in lines of business not per- 
mitted under the law, but usually tolerated by the po- 
lice, to keep the peace with the police department. 
There is, again, the large number of voters whose only 
appreciation of the value of their ballots is the price 



Chap. XXXVI MUNICIPAL MISRULE AND SOCIALISM 507 

they will bring on election day, but these voters are 
largely bought and sold through the places of public 
resort, subject to police control. It will be seen, then, 
that the number of people in a great city who have di- 
rect personal business reasons for voting one way or 
another regardless of the public interest is very large. 
679. Always False Issues.— Now, there is one thing 
that is true of all these interests, of the tax dodgers, 
of the corporations, of the politicians and of the pur- 
chasable voters, namely, none of them are in a posi- 
tion to state to the general public exactly what they 
want and why they are fighting for any particular 
party in any particular campaign. If the tax dodger 
should say he was dodging his taxes, and was support- 
ing a candidate in order that he might continue to do 
so, he would defeat his candidate. If the corporation 
should tell the people that it wishes certain persons 
elected, because they will not interfere with the cor- 
poration's business and will permit the furnishing of 
inferior gas, of polluted water, or of over-crowded and 
unheated cars, to the great advantage of the corpora- 
tion and to the great injury of the public, the public 
would never vote for its candidates. If the politicians 
should state frankly that the reason they wish their 
party to win in an election is because of the salaries, 
the private commissions secured through the granting 
of licenses, the letting of contracts, the protection of 
tax dodgers, or the sale of franchises, or the levying 
of blackmail on forbidden callings, the general public 
would resent the proposal, and would bury the party. 
If the purchasable voters should frankly state that 
they are anxious for their party to win because it 
means police protection for a questionable business, 
or for the improper conduct of a legitimate business, or 
for private jobs, or for drinks, or dollars, the public 
would never vote for such a program. The only way 



508 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

that tax dodgers, corporations, politicians and pur- 
chasable voters can secure what they want is to all the 
time pretend to be fighting for something else. 

680. Dividing the Voters.— But this would not be 
sufficient to insure their control except for the fact that 
state and national political parties are able to divide 
the larger portion of the people between the Eepublic- 
ans and the Democrats, or if this fails, to hold the divi- 
sion then by organizing *^ citizens' parties'' and ** inde- 
pendent parties" in such a way as to still divide the 
people who all the time desire good government, and in 
this way persuade them to vote against each other and 
thus cancel each other's votes, while the tax dodgers, 
the corporations, the politicians, the purchasable vot- 
ers, by acting together, usually first with one party and 
then with another, are able all the time to hold them- 
selves in control. 

681. Pooling Interests by Corrupt Forces.— The tax 
dodgers and corporations have few votes, but they have 
plenty of dollars. The politicians have few dollars, but 
they are willing to do anything to get dollars, or votes 
for the sake of dollars. The purchasable voters are not 
numerous as compared with the rest of the community, 
but they are anxious for the best price in drinks or dol- 
lars, or jobs, for the votes they sell, or for the guarantee 
of protection from interference through the police de- 
partment for their private enterprises, or their jtublic 
crimes, and all these together, with the rest of the com- 
munity voting in opposition to each other on general 
measures, are numerous enough to hold the balance of 
power between political parties and in this way all the 
time control elections and corruptly administer, in 
their own behalf, the general interests of all the great 
centers of population. The tax dodgers, the corpora- 
tions, the politicians, and the purchasable voters have 



Chap. XXXVI MUNICIPAL MISRULE AND SOCIALISM 509 

pooled their interests and are acting together the world 
over. 

682. Socialism and Municipal Misrule.— Municipal 
misrule as related to Socialism involves two important 
considerations. First, what will become of the corrupt 
forces of municipal life under Socialism; and, Second, 
what could the Socialist party do if in control of a 
municipality before securing control of the general 
government, and hence while being obliged to ad- 
minister the affairs of a city under the laws and insti- 
tutions established by capitalism. 

683. Tax Dodgers, Corporations, Politicians and 
the Socialists.— First, both taxation and the tax dodger 
will cease to exist under Socialism. 

Second, the establishment of the co-operative com- 
monwealth, by abolishing the private corporation, will 
utterly destroy the power in public matters of the pri- 
vate corporation which is rendering. a public service- 
Third, the co-operative commonwealth will utterly 
destroy the power of the professional politician so far 
as he is able to secure for himself an unusual salary, 
private reward for the sale of franchises, commissions 
for placing contracts, blackmail in connection with 
licenses or crimes, or private spoils in the distribution 
of jobs, because none of these will be possible under So- 
cialism. Franchises will be neither sold nor given 
away; the contract system as related to public works 
will not exist, and the best possible employment will 
be guaranteed to all, regardless of their relations to 
any political party. 

684. Why No Purchasable Voters Under Socialism. 
—Fourth, under the co-operative commonwealth, the 
purchasable voter will utterly disappear, for the rea- 
son that under the co-operative commonwealth his vote 
will involve, neither the matter of protecting himself 
in a questionable business, nor in the improper conduct 



510 CURRENT PROBLEMS PabtV 

of a legitimate enterprise, as is now the case, but will 
then involve all of the problems that from day to day 
are related in any way to his employment, his hours of 
labor, his subsistence, and all other questions related 
in any way whatever to the collective management of 
the collective industries of the co-operative common- 
wealth. There would be no private contractors, or pri- 
vate spoilsmen in public office with personal advan- 
tages to them of sufficient importance to put them into 
the market as the purchasers of the votes of others; 
but if such a thing were possible, the personal interests 
of the individual voter, in the just and efficient adminis- 
tration of public affairs, would be so great, under the 
co-operative commonwealth, that no private boodler 
could afford to pay a sufficient price in the purchase 
of a vote to make it of advantage to any voter to sell 
his ballot for the advantage of another, rather than to 
use his ballot to protect and provide for himself. The 
political job, even if it could be conceived to exist un- 
der Socialism, will lose its power to attract when de- 
cent, industrial employment shall be the right of all. 
Give to all men and women the opportunity for reason- 
able, respectable, clean and honest work, and question- 
able enterprises,— lawless methods of providing one's 
livelihood, will be utterly abandoned. Socialism, then, 
will settle the problem of municipal corruption by put- 
ting out of existence the great political forces which 
are now the sources of municipal corruption. Social- 
ism will remove both the motive and the opportunity 
for municipal misrule. 

685. While Capitalism Remains.— Again, the So- 
cialist party will not be able to do all these things un- 
til it is in control in the nation, because only then can 
it inaugurate the co-operative commonwealth. But in 
any city it could immediately and greatly improve the 
adminstration of local affairs. Today the corpora- 



Chap. XXXVI MUNICIPAL MISRULE AND SOCIALISM 511 

tions and tax dodgers furnish the money, the politi- 
cians do the unclean work, and the purchasable voters 
furnish the only vote sufficiently large, under the guid- 
ance of the professional politician and influenced by 
the funds of the corporations and tax dodgers, to con- 
trol elections. 

686. Corrupting Forces Put Together and Out of 
Power. The Socialist party will directly antagonize 
the private corporations and the tax dodgers, because 
of the nature of its general proposals, and having their 
opposition, would drive them into the party of op- 
position to Socialism, and together with the cor- 
porations and tax dodgers, all of the forces of munici- 
pal corruption which the corporations and tax dodgers 
can control, including the professional politicans and 
the purchasable voters. Wherever the Socialist party 
has approached the point of promising an early victory 
for the Socialist party, all other political parties have 
combined in a single organization to withstand Social- 
ism. This being the case, while the Socialist party 
cannot locally inaugurate the co-operative common- 
wealth and so destroy the forces which corrupt munici- 
pal administrations, it can drive all of these forces 
of municipal corruption into one political party, and 
by carrying the election put that party out of power. 

But what would be the nature of the relations of 
the Socialist party to these same corrupt political 
forces? Not until the co-operative commonwealth 
could abolish corporations, and by giving employment 
to all, rob the professional politician of the unusual sal- 
aries and of the spoils of office and put out of exist- 
ence the purchasable voter by making the vote of all 
men and women of such great economic value to 
themselves that no one could afford to sell, and no one 
could afford to buy, could the forces of municipal cor- 
ruption be put out of existence. But the Socialist 



512 CURRENT PROBLEMS 1>artV 

party coming into power in defiance of these forces 
and in spite of their opposition wonld not be obliged 
to keep the peace with them in order to retnm to 
power. The Socialist vote would be composed of the 
voters whose public interests would be real and genu- 
ine. They would be interested in improving the pub- 
lic schools, and maintaining sanitary conditions, in 
abolishing the outrage of private blackmail, and in 
securing the greatest benefits to the public from pri- 
vate corporations, so long as private corporations 
remain in the public service. An adminstration which 
would enable a Socialist party to hold its own votes 
together, would necessarily antagonize the corpora- 
tions and their corrupt followings in municipal affairs. 

687. Keeping Them Out.— So long as these corrupt 
forces, tax dodgers, private corporations, professional 
politicians and purchasable voters remain, so long mu- 
nicipal corruption cannot be entirely set aside. So 
soon as the co-operative commonwealth is established, 
municipal misrule will cease, because the causes of mu- 
nicipal misrule will cease to exist. So soon as the 
Socialist party shall come into control of any city^ the 
tax dodgers, the corporations, the professional politi- 
cians and the purchasable voters will be shorn of their 
greatest power by forcing them into one political party 
and by putting that party out of power in the munici- 
pality. The tax dodgers and the corporations would 
be obliged to deal with public officers whose election 
they had done their best to prevent and who would find 
the continual enmity of the tax dodgers and corpora- 
tions the strongest element in securing their own re- 
election. 

688. Summary.— 1. City governments are uni- 
formly corrupt. 

2. Tax dodgers, corporations, professional politi- 
cians and purchasable voters are directly and greatly 



Chap. XXXVI MUNICIPAL MISRULE AKD SOCIALISM 5l3 

interested in having the city administrations corrupt. 

3. The whole body of voters are kept divided while 
the corrupt forces unite, and, acting first with one 
party and then with the other, control the city all the 
time. 

4. When Socialism comes the tax dodger, the cor- 
poration, the professional politician and the purchas- 
able voter will all disappear. 

5. The sources of corruption having been removed, 
municipal corruption will also disappear. 

6. A local municipal victory could not establish So- 
cialism, but the Socialist party, because of its general 
program, would drive the tax dodger, the corporation, 
the professional politician and the purchasable voter 
all into one party and by carrying the election put 
that party out of power. 

7. The Socialist party could remain in power only 
by continuously provoking the opposition of these cor- 
rupting forces by a just adm lustration of affairs. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Are virtuous citizens tlie only ones who desire good govern- 
ynent? Why? 

2. Why are both the Democratic and Republican parties alike 
corrupt in city matters? 

3. What are the sources of municipal corruption? 

4. Why are the tax dodger, the corporation, the politician and the 
purchasable voter all personally interested in misrule? 

5. What is the personal interest of each ? 

6. Why cannot the corporation stay out of politics? 

7. What is included in the spoils of oflftce? 

8. Who are the purchasable voters? 

9. Why is a false issue always necessary? 

10. What share does each of the corrupt forces undertake in carry- 
ing elections in their own interests ? 

11. Why do they pool their interests? 

12. Why will not these same forces prevail under Socialism? 

13. How can the Socialist party, better than any other party, 
meet these forces in a local city election, while capitalism continues 
to rule the state and nation? 



CHAPTEE XXXVn 

UNJUST TAXATION AND SOCIALISM 

689. Justice in Taxation Impossible.— Taxation is 

an old subject, is always the subject of controversy, 
and its discusion is always characterized by charges 
of corruption ; and yet not all of the difficulties con- 
nected with the subject of taxation under capitalism 
are to be attributed to the corruption of public officials 
or the dishonesty of the tax payers. (See Chapter 
XXXVI for tax-dodging as a cause of municipal cor- 
ruption.) Assessments are ordinarily by townships, 
sometimes by counties. Assessments are always sup- 
posed to be made for less than the actual cash value. 
Boards of review, in attempting to readjust the work 
of different assessors, must do so largely without per- 
sonal knowledge of the facts involved. State boards 
of equalization usually have the power to raise or 
lower all assessments in a given county, but not to 
enter into the matter of differences in the valuations 
as made by the various assessors within the counties. 
For many years in Chicago, if the original assessment 
had been fairly made in any particular case, the final 
equalization by the state board would have raised the 
amount of the taxes in that case to such a rate as to 
more than absorb the annual property value. In that 

514 



Chap. XXXVII UNJUST TAXATION AND SOCIALISM 515 

city the only way that the individual taxpayer can 
protect himself from the confiscation of his property 
by taxation is to make untruthful representations as 
to the value of the property at the time the assessment 
is made. All assessments for personal property are 
likely to be mere guesses, and again, result, in many 
cases, in the greatest injustice even when the assessor 
is doing his best. 

690. Indirect Taxation.— Indirect taxes, as tariff 
and internal revenue charges, are always unfair, inas- 
much as it proportions the public burden upon the pro- 
portion of consumption of certain articles rather than 
on property values. It would be hard to find a reason 
why a man who uses tobacco should be required to pay 
more taxes than one who does not. It would be hard 
to find a reason why people should be required to pay 
taxes at a time and in a manner which makes it impos- 
sible for them to determine what share of their pay- 
ments may be properly figured as living expenses and 
what share as taxes. 

These difficulties are inherent in capitalism, and 
no kind of tax reform can be devised so long as capital- 
ism remains that will prevent injustice being done even 
when public officials are doing their best. 

691. Property Which Can Be Hidden.— There are 
three kinds of property subject to assessment ; the one, 
property which is easily hidden, such as securities, 
bonds, diamonds, jewelry and other personal belong- 
ings. This property rarely pays taxes. The tax roll of 
any great city will reveal how absurd is the idea of sup- 
posing that property subject to assessment and capable 
of being hidden pays any just share of the burdens of 
taxation. For the practical purposes of this discus- 
sion we may admit that property which can be hidden 
escapes taxation. 

692. Cannot Be Hidden— Held in Small Holdings.— 



516 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

Next, is the property which cannot be hidden, but is 
owned in such small holdings that the owners cannot 
afford to take the time and incur the expense necessary 
to control the assessor, the equalization boards, or 
whatever public authority may for an inducement 
neglect to collect or remit without collecting taxes once 
assessed. Such properties include the teams and 
wagons of expressmen, the stocks of goods of small 
merchants, the tools of small shops, the homes of the 
poor,, real estate held in small amounts, and all ordi- 
nary farming property. The owners of such property 
are rarely able to control the assessor and the boards 
who have authority to review the work of the assessor. 
The burden of taxation falls upon such properties and 
they have no means of escape. 

693. Cannot Be Hidden— Held in Large Holdings: 
—The third and last class which we consider is prop- 
erty which cannot be hidden, but is held by corpora- 
tions, or by private parties, with the holdings suffi- 
ciently large to enable the owners to make it pay to 
give attention to securing control of the assessor and 
of all other public officers in any way connected with 
the subject of taxation. They cannot hide their prop- 
erty, but they can elect a clerk, or a personal depend- 
ent, or a member of the corporation to be the assessor, 
or, as a notorious tax dodger recently remarked, 
*^Even when the assessments have been made, it is one 
thing to assess and another thing to collect, with the 
great corporations so largely in control of the courts. ' ' 
Eailways, street car companies, great department 
stores, great manufacturing establishments, mining 
corporations, great industrial organizations of all sorts 
usually maintain a special department devoted exclu- 
sively to the subject of avoiding the payment of taxes.^ 

1, "I have studied autocracy in Russia and theocracy in Rome, and 
I must say that nowhere, not even in Russia, in the first years of the 



Chap. XXXVII _ UNJUST TAXATION AND SOCIALISM 517 

As long as the corporations control,— and as long as 
capitalism lasts the corporations must control,— so 
long the great properties will escape their just share of 
the public burden, and the small properties will pay 
the cost of maintaining the state, whose authority will 
be constantly used by the large enterprises in the proc- 
ess of destroying the small ones. And, again, so long 
as capitalism lasts it will be impossible to devise any 
systems of assessment, and scheme of taxation which 
will protect the man whose enterprise is too small to 
make it possible for him to control the assessor, against 
the enterprise which is so large that it cannot afford 
not to control the assessor.^ 

' 694. Public Charges Under Socialism.— The com- 
ing of Socialism will abolish all this, for under Social- 
ism it is inconceivable that society would consent to 
any system of taxation. The keeping of the public ac- 
counts and any services which may be found necessary 
as a means of adjusting disputes of such a nature as to 
call for public attention, would be masters of the pub- 
lic's business. The cost of doing these things would be 
a part of the cost of production. Instead of the gross 
products of particular workers being distributed to 
them from the public stores, and then another depart- 

reaction occasioned by the murder of the late czar, have I struck more 
abject submission to a more soulless despotism than that which prevails 
among the masses of the so-called free American citizens, when they are 
face to face with the omnipotent power of corporations." — Stead: If 
Christ Came to Chicago, Quoted in Lorimer's Christianity and the Social 
State, p. 203. See also p. 204. 

2. "But thoroughgoing Socialism or Collectivism would probably 
deny that any limit upon the tax power is justifiable which stops short 
of the proximate realization of their distributive ideal. It is right here 
that the sociological side of finance becomes of prime importance. The 
present constitution of private property has been challenged. Whether 
this institution can or ought to be changed, if so to what degree : wheth- 
er the distribution of the social dividend can be effected upon another 
basis than the present one — these are the points of contact between col- 
lectivism and the industrial constitution of modern society. In short, 
the battlefield where Socialism will not improbably assail the conser- 
vative forces of society lies within the domain of finance." — ^Daniels: 
Public Finance, p. 6. 



518 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

ment of public service created to inquire after personal 
possessions, and to levy taxes for public purposes, any 
public expense necessary for the public welfare, under 
any possible system of co-operative production, would 
be directly provided for by the collectivity before dis- 
tribution to the various workers would be made. 
Such expenditures would be of the same nature as 
charges for fuel, for light, for oil, for machinery, for 
repairs on the tools of production, and would be a part 
of the running expenses, a part of the cost of carrying 
on the industrial co-operative commonwealth. These 
services being a part of the work of production, the 
persons performing these services would be rewarded 
like other producers, not by levying a tax upon any 
or all, but by directly using such a share of the social 
products as would be necessary for such social pur- 
poses. 

695. Taxation Under a Local Socialist Administra- 
tion.— What effect will the victory of the Socialist 
party have in any particular locality on the subject 
of taxation, in that locality, before a general national 
victory shall make possible the inauguration of Social- 
ism? The most careless examination of the tax assess- 
ments in any community will reveal that great injus- 
tice is being wrought under capitalism against those 
who, if they own property, own it largely, not for the 
purpose of exploiting others, but for the purpose of 
occupying it as their homes, or for the purpose of using 
it in the employment of their own labor; and this 
wrong is done by the great properties which exist sole- 
ly for purposes of exploitation. 

It is sometimes claimed that a Socialist victory, in 
any given town, would immediately raise the tax rate. 
If the rate of assessment were left at the current rate 
and the large properties fairly assessed at that rate, 
the public income would be enormously increased. As 



Chap. XXXVII UNJUST TAXATION AND SOCIALISM 519 

a matter of fact, Socialist assessors have been able to 
greatly reduce the rate of assessment and at the same 
time greatly increase the public income. This brings 
relief, rather than distress, to the small tax payer. In 
other words, the most rational result of such a Social- 
ist victory would be to make a much harder hunt for 
hidden property, that it might be subjected to taxation, 
and so far as possible, to adjust the assessments so as 
to prevent the millionaire tax dodgers from corruptly 
using the power of public office to shift the burdens of 
taxation from themselves upon those less able than 
themselves to pay. Either the Socialist administration 
would directly, dishonestly and discriminately work 
against the poorer man and in behalf of the great cor- 
porations, as the present assessors do, or else such re- 
lief for the poorer people, and such an increase of pub- 
lic income must follow a local Socialist victory. 

696. Oppressive Taxation and Socialism.— It is 
claimed, too, that if the Socialists were permitted to 
administer the affairs of any given municipality that 
they would so increase the tax assessment as to direct- 
ly destroy all property value. As soon as Socialism 
can be inaugurated, the Socialists, whatever plans may 
be adopted for meeting necessary public charges, will 
in all probability abolish the assessor's office, and all 
schemes of taxation which attempt to collect back from 
the people any share of that which is admitted to be- 
long to them as individuals. But until Socialism is in- 
augurated the Socialist party, in any given locality, 
could not, even if it would, very greatly increase the 
rate of assessment, for the reason that whatever the So- 
cialists would undertake would be subject to the review 
of the courts, and the state and federal judges would 
not be answerable to the Socialists. Suppose a given 
city should be carried by the Socialist party and an 
assessment should be levied by the Socialists which 



520 CUERENT PROBLEMS PartV 

would amount to the confiscation of property values, 
then citizens of other states through the federal courts 
could and would restrain a proceeding of that sort. 
The taxing power, exercised by local Socialist adminis- 
trations, so long as capitalism lasts, must be exercised 
in such a way as not to lay themselves liable for having 
attempted anything which, under the rules of capital- 
ism, could be construed to be a violation of property 
rights, by a state or federal court directly opposed to 
the position of the Socialists. Whenever the Socialists 
have the power to control the courts, they would also 
have power to abolish capitalism and the whole 
scheme of taxation along with capitalism. 

On the other hand, a Socialist administration, in the 
nature of the case, having been put into power locally 
by the votes of working men, would naturally increase 
the school funds, enlarge the sanitary expenditures, 
and in every way make whatever funds were available, 
under such taxation as they would be able to enforce, 
render the greatest possible service to the working 
people. 

697. Who Pays the Taxes?— The question as to who 
pays the taxes, that is, whether the taxes are a part 
of the sums which in the distribution of the products 
of labor have been used in the payment of wages or 
rent or interest or profit, is not a question of such seri- 
ous importance as it has sometimes been held to be. 
Admitting that the iron law of wages rules, then taxes 
cannot be collected from that bare subsistence of the 
worker, and must come from the share of the product 
which has fallen to the exploiters. But taxes may be 
one of the items of the expense of living. Thus the 
landlord pays taxes and collects rents. Unless his 
rents cover what he pays for taxes his enterprise will 
not be profitable to him. The working man in paying 
rent pays taxes and the taxes so paid must come from 



Chap. XXXVII UNJUST TAXATION AIND SOCIALISM 521 

his wages or the share of his rent which goes for taxes 
is a share of the products of the worker which falls to 
him under the iron law of wages. It is not in point to 
say that the workers must pay the taxes because the 
workers create all wealth. There is no question about 
the workers creating all wealth; the question is wheth- 
er the share of wealth so created which goes for taxes 
comes from the share which falls to the workers as 
wages, or from the share which falls to the exploiter, 
either as rent, interest or profit. And the point in 
this discussion is that if the workers do not pay the 
taxes they cannot be interested in the just assessment 
and honest collection of the taxes. 

698. Equalization of Collective Burdens.— It has 
been seen above that under Socialism necessary public 
expenses will be equally and easily borne by all pro- 
ducers. As long as capitalism remains no solution ol 
the tax problem can produce such results. But the 
triumph of the Socialist partj^ in any given city will 
come nearer accomplishing such a result than any 
other program which can be undertaken under capital- 
ism, and so far as such working people as teamsters, 
expressmen, small shopkeepers, the owners of small 
shops and small farms are concerned the local triumph 
of the Socialist party will directly relieve all such peo- 
ple from the corrupt and unjust administration of the 
taxing power. While it will lessen their rates of taxa- 
tion, it will increase the public income from the present 
tax dodgers and administer this income for the direct 
benefit of all the working people. 

The fact is that the share of the products which falls 
to the payment of wages or interest or rent or profit 
is never a fixed and invariable proportion. All of the 
parties to the distribution of the products of labor un- 
der capitalism are constantly striving to enlarge the 
share which falls to them. The corrupt administration 



522 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

of the taxing power is one of the means by which the 
millionaire exploiter increases the share which falls 
to him, while he lessens the public income available for 
such public purposes as would most directly benefit 
the working class. 

699. Big and Little Tax Payers.— It is a mistake 
to suppose that the Socialist, locally in power, but un- 
der capitalism, has any quarrel with the tax payer who 
owns property which he cannot hide and in such small 
holdings that he cannot afford to own the assessor also. 
When Socialism comes such people will never again be 
called on to bear more than their share of the common 
burden for the common needs of society. Until Social- 
ism comes, the Socialist party, being in control in any 
city or in any state and not in the nation, will never 
be able to assess and to collect taxes on all property at 
a rate in excess of what the poorer people are paying 
now, and the immediate effect of a local victory will be 
to lessen rather than to increase the poor man's share. 

There is no ground for reasonable controversy be- 
tween the working man who lives in his own cottage 
and another working man who lives in a hired house 
on this subject of taxation. A local Socialist victory 
cannot add to the burdens of either, and must increase 
the public income from the enemy of both and to the 
direct benefit of both. 

700. Summary.— 1. Under capitalism taxation is 
necessarily unjust, even when public officials are not 
corrupt. 

2. Under capitalism the business interests benefited 
by a corrupt administration of the taxing power are 
so great that only by the destruction of capitalism it- 
self can their power to corrupt taxation be overthrown. 

3. Under Socialism no system of taxation involving 
a search for hidden goods, or for making assessments 



Chap. XXXVII UNJUST TAXATION AND SOCIALISM 523 

under the influence of great private interests will be 
necessary. 

4. The control of the public authorities by Social- 
ists in any locality will be distinctly in the interest of 
the most just administration of the taxing power pos- 
sible under capitalism. It will naturally lower the rate 
and at the same time increase the public income, while 
it will control expenditures directly in behalf of the 
working people. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Why cannot justice in taxation be established under capitalism? 

2. Why is all indirect taxation unjust? 

3. How and what kinds of property usually escape taxation? 

4. Why cannot small properties escape taxes? 

5. How do large properties escape the payment of taxes? 

6. How would Socialism affect the subject of taxation? 

7. How would a local Socialist adminstration, while the state and 
nation remained under capitalism, affect the subject of taxation ? 

8. Would the Socialists, if given local control, adopt oppressive 
measures of taxation under a general reign of capitalism? 

9. Who pays the taxes under capitalism? 

10. Who is most injured by the tax dodger? 

11. Does tax dodging injure the working man? 

12. Can Socialism equalize collective burdens? 

13. Will a local Socialist administration be likely to discriminate 
against small property holders in the matter of taxes in the same way 
as is now done? 



CHAPTER XXXVin 

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND SOCIALISM 

701. The Collective Public— Public ownership is 
frequently spoken of as if it were Socialism. If the 
word ^^ public" be properly understood, or if the word 
'* government'' be made to mean the same thing, then 
public ownership, or government ownership, that is, 
collective ownership, is a part of the Socialist program. 
But there may be public ownership under capitalism 
with no Socialism, and with no part of Socialism.^ 

702. Collective Ownership.— On the other hand, it 
is impossible to have Socialism without collective own- 
ership of the means of production, so far as they are 

1. "There is no completion of the Socialist theory until industry- 
is so managed by the community that interest, rent and profit are 
'socialized' — are turned from private into public possessions. It is the 
Socialist's faith that, until this is done, a portion of what labor earns 
will go to those who have given no equivalent for it., To restore this 
unearned income to the whole people, the means of production — land 
and machinery — must pass to social ownership. The conservative cry 
against all this is that 'it destroys private property.' If it were charged 
that certain forms of private property would be destroyed, the criticism 
is just. There is in theory no destruction of private property further 
than that involved in these 'three rents.' [See Chapter 28.] A hundred 
forms of property (slaves, highways, toll-bridges) have changed and 
must change with advancing civilization. Communism in all its ex- 
tremes destroys private property outright. Socialism safeguards it to 
to the extent of giving absolute rights to the individual over all products 
that he can hold for consumption." — Brooks : Social Unrest, pp. 278'279^ 

524 



Chap. XXXVIII PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND SOCIALISM 525 

collectively used. The state of Kansas publicly owns 
a binding twine factory, but the binding twine trust 
privately owns all the raw material which the Kansas 
factory must use in order to produce binding twine. 
The result is that the state of Kansas has made a con- 
tract with the binding twine trust to buy all of its raw 
material from the trust,— and to sell all of its product 
to the trust. Here is an instance of public ownership 
which simply results in furnishing a factory for the 
free use of the binding twine trust, together with cheap 
labor, inasmuch as the factory is a part of the indus- 
trial equipment of the state penitentiary. "While this 
is public ownership, it is not Socialism. Street car 
lines, railways, and postoffices, where owned and oper- 
ated by the government, have nothing of democracy in 
their administration, or of equality of opportunity to 
become workers, which are essential features of the So- 
cialist program. So long as the government is admin- 
istered by a political party controlled by the capital- 
ists, any industries administered by such a government 
cannot in any way be said to be either examples of So- 
cialism or steps toward Socialism. 

703. Bismarck.— The shrewdest and most powerful 
individual antagonist Socialism has yet liad was Bis- 
marck. He successfully urged the Prussian govern- 
ment to purchase all the railways in Prussia, and the 
process was begun in 1879. This sample of the tactics 
of Bismarck while battling against Socialism at least 
was not intended as a step towards Socialism. 

704. Free Rides and Rents and Wages.— There are 
three groups of capitalists doing business in a great 
city. One owns the shops ; another owns large blocks 
of tenement houses, and a third owns the street rail- 
ways. For the general public to combine with the own- 
ers of the shops at one end of the line, and with the 
owners of the tenement houses at the other end of the 



526 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

line to secure public ownership of the street railways, 
connecting the shops and the tenement houses, will not 
greatly benefit the public. "What the people save in 
fares will be added to their rents at one end of the line, 
or taken from their wages at the other. Such public 
ownership is neither Socialism nor a step toward So- 
cialism, if this language is understood to mean that it 
is in any way an illustration of the opeiation of what 
the Socialists propose. 

705. A Concession in the Argument.— On the other 
hand, it may be said to be a concession to the Social- 
ist's argument, and, indirectly, while in no way an 
example of Socialism, may tend to strengthen the pro- 
posals of the Socialists in the public mind. It sug- 
gests the socialization of productive property. In such 
a sense it is a step toward Socialism. 

706. A Step in Evolution.— Socialism involves the 
organization, centralization and more perfect equip- 
ment of industry, together with collective ownership, 
democratic management, and equal opportunity. The 
work of organization, concentration and the perfection 
of the equipment essential to the inauguration of the 
co-operative commonwealth is being carried on under 
capitalism by the initiative of the capitalists them- 
selves, under the necessary operation of economic laws. 
The process would continue without the support and 
even with the opposition of the Socialists.^ 

707. An Important Admission.— The principle of 
collective ownership has so far been the point, of the 
main controversy between the supporters of Socialism 
and the defenders of Capitalism. Every time the pub- 
lic goes into the gas business, into building electric 

2. "When railroads were first introduced, people's minds revolted 
against the monoply of transportation thereby involved. Statutes were 
devised to make the track free for the use of different carriers, as the 
public highway is free to the owners of different wagons. But the econ- 
omy of having .all trains controlled by a single owner was soon apparent. 



Chap. XXXVIII PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND SOCIALISM 527 

light plants, or power houses, or public ditches, or res- 
ervoirs, or in any way becomes a part owner in any of 
the great industrial plants of the world, the principle 
of collective ownership is conceded, and the Socialist 
side of the argument is thus strengthened in the public 
mind. In that sense, public ownership, while it is de- 
nied to be a step in the inauguration of Socialism, is a 
step in the abandonment of what has so far been the 
ground of the principal argument against Socialism. 

708. Some Advantages.— It is not to be denied that 
the public in the long run is a better employer than 
the private corporation. Shorter hours, greater secur- 
ity of employment and better rates of wages are advan- 
tages which may be secured under public ownership 
for small portions of the workers. But none of these 
can result, except in the most indirect and roundabout 
way, in a general elevation of the working class; and 
none of them in any way affect, unless it be injuriously, 
the question of the industrial emancipation of the 
workers, that is, the making of their hours of labor, the 
distribution of their products and the security of their 
employment subject to the control of the workers 
themselves. 

709. Public Ownership of the Means of Proiiucing 
the Means of Life.— Again, it should be noticed that 
public ownership has so far been proposed only for 
means of communication or of transportation or of 
some public necessity of the most general use, but not 
as a rule seriously affecting the problem of subsistence, 

Then laws were passed compelling competition among owners of separ- 
ate roads. * * * Laws against pools, traffic associations, etc., fol- 
lowed. * * * Many of these laws were failures from the outset; 
others have hastened consolidation to a point beyond the reach of special 
law; others did positive harm. * * * The majority of thinking 
men have come to the conclusion that railroads are in some sense a na- 
tural monopoly and have classed them with water- works, gas-works and 
other 'quasi public' lines of business, as an exception to the general rule 
of free competition."— Hadley : Education of an American Citizen, p. 
42. 



52S CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

especially for the more poorly paid of the working 
class. The enterprises of Glasgow have been most 
widely mentioned as instances of public ownership, but 
public ownership in Glasgow has not attempted the 
public ownership of any of the principal means of pro- 
ducing the means of life. Public ownership, so far, has 
everywhere kept away from the public ownership of 
the raw materials, and the great machines, jointly 
used, as the means of producing the means of life. But 
public ownership, even under democratic management 
by the workers employed, undertaken in the adminis- 
tration of recognized public utilities, but to the exclu- 
sion of all enterprises directly engaged in producing 
the means of life, would still condemn a part of the 
workers to the petty tyranny of the private boss and 
subject all of the workers to the exploitation of the pri- 
vate capitalist controlling the privately produced ne- 
cessities of life. 

710. Industrial Democracy.— Public ownership no- 
where proposes to provide for the self-employment and 
self-direction of all the workers. At this point lies the 
most radical difference between all schemes for pub- 
lic ownership and Socialism. The one attempts to 
organize a business, to hire its labor in the market, to 
subject it to the discipline of a boss in the employment 
of whom the workers have no voice, and by civil serv- 
ice examinations, to provide ''jobs" only for those 
who are best able to survive without them. 

Socialism, on the other hand, will not undertake to 
organize the workers for the sake of an industry, but 
to organize and equip all the great industries for the 
sake of the workers, and- especially and primarily those 
industries most directly connected with the production 
of the means of life. This will be done, not with the 
view to employing only the picked and most efficient 
of the wo'rkers, but of giving equal opportunity to all 



Chap. XXXVIII PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND SOCIALISM 529 

men and women to become workers if they shall so 
choose. 

711. Summary.— 1. Public ownership is not So- 
cialism. 

2. Public ownership is not a part of Socialism un- 
less ^* public'' means the whole body of the people and 
ownership is to carry with it democratic management 
and equal opportunity and is extended to include all 
the means of producing the means of life so far as they 
are collectively used. 

3. Every case of public ownership is a concession 
in the argument for Socialism. 

4. The evolution of capitalism naturally passes 
through organization, centralization of management, 
perfection of equipment, and into public ownership 
with or without the support of the Socialists. 

5. Public ownership as commonly proposed keeps 
clear of the means of producing the means of life and 
in no way interferes with exploitation nor delivers the 
workers from boss rule. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Show that public ownership is not Socialism. 

2. Illustrate by the Kansas twine factory. 

3. Is public ownership a step towards Socialism, as giving an ex- 
ample of Socialism? Explain. 

4. Show how a publicly owned street railway could operate without 
bringing advantage to the working people. 

5. What has been the principal point of contention regarding 
Socialism ? 

6. How does public ownership affect this argument? 

7. Name some advantages of public ownership. 

8. Show that they fall short of Socialism. Show that public 
ownership does not involve the overthrow of the wage system. 

9^ Why is exploitation possible under the public ownership of the 
recognized "public utilities" ? 

10. In what way will the employment of labor under Socialism 
necessarily differ from its employment under public ownerBhip while 
capitalism remains ? 



CHAPTEE XXXIX 

THE CIVIL SERVICE AND SOCIALISM 

712. **The Coming Slavery."— Herbert Spencer, 
writing of what he conceived to be Socialism, warns 
the public against what he called *^The Coming Slav- 
ery/' It is not infrequently said that Socialism will 
put everybody into the public service, will necessarily 
lower the efficiency of the public service, and make of 
all the voters uniformed government dependents. 

713. The Civil Service.— The civil service now con- 
sists of the employes in the postoffice, the various de- 
partmental branches of service at "Washington, the 
public school teachers, the police department, the fire 
department and the clerical workers in all branches 
of government service. Where the public authorities 
undertake public improvements, without the interven- 
tion of the contractor, the workers in these depart- 
ments may also be added to the civil service list. 

714. Self-Goveming Service.— It is the purpose of 
this chapter to show that Socialism, instead of bring- 
ing all citizens into the uniformed, organized, disci- 
plined and dependent relations of the employes now in 
the civil service, will deliver even those now so em- 
ployed to the full privilege of citizenship, not to a citi- 
zenship of the sort which the other workers now have, 
but to a citizenship which will completelj^ enfranchise 

53Q 



Chap. XXXIX THE CIVIL SERVICE AND SOCIALISM 531 

both them and all other workers in all matters of com- 
mon concern. 

715. Postoffice Employes and the President.— The 

President of the United States recently issued an order 
that no employe in the postal department should ask 
for an increase of pay, shortening of hours, or in any 
way undertake to secure an improvement of his condi- 
tion as a worker, and he accompanied this order with 
the further order that any such employe so attempting 
to secure such changes in his own behalf should be dis- 
missed from the service. The Mail Carriers' Associa- 
tion is not permitted to participate with other labor 
organizations in attempting to secure an improvement 
of the general conditions of the average working man; 
activity in politics is forbidden; instead of the public 
employe having any voice in the direct management of 
the work in which he is engaged, he is especially for- 
bidden to attempt, even indirectly, to control that em- 
ployment by exercising his rights as an American citi- 
zen by an active participation in partisan politics. 
Promotions are not the result of effective service, the 
service to be determined by the workers themselves, 
but are the result of examinations or of records of serv- 
ice as determined by superintendents or heads of de- 
partments who are in no way answerable to the work- 
ers. 

716. Limited Employment.— Only the picked men 
are given employment. Competitive examinations are 
relied upon, not to provide employment for all or for 
all those qualified, but only for the most efficient. 

717. The Incompetent and the Employed.— Some 
years ago (1888) the writer of these pages was en- 
gaged for some time in an effort to promote a move- 
ment which was then quite widely considered by labor 
organizations and others for the organization of a po- 
litical party whose platform should be Public Owner- 



532 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

sMp, particularly of the railways. It was in this ef- 
fort, and in the further study of the problems con- 
nected with this purpose, that the author discovered its 
necessary limitations, and how practically valueless 
public ownership is as a source of relief for working 
people. It was during the time that he was so en- 
gaged, however, that, on the occasion of an interview 
with a distinguished jurist, the jurist objected to pub- 
lic ownership on the ground that the first task must be 
to improve the civil service regulations and that pub- 
lic ownership could be considered afterwards; *' be- 
cause,'' said he, ^^ along with public ownership would 
come the demand of every Tom, Dick and Harry for a 
public job. ' ' The writer asked in reply for some good 
and sufficient reason why Tom, Dick and Harry should 
be prevented from having a job. The answer has never 
been given. So long as the civil service is organized 
to employ a part of the workers, and these have no 
voice in the management of their own labor, it may 
be well presented as an evil to be avoided, but it is an 
evil which exists under capitalism, and which will 
cease to exist after the inauguration of Socialism. 

718. Self -Employment for AIL— The civil service, 
if it may be said to exist at all under Socialism, will 
simply be the whole body of the people, organizing 
themselves for the most effective employment of social 
labor power in the processes of social production and 
distribution. There will be no competitive examina- 
tions to determine who shall be in and who shall be out. 
The general struggle which now goes on for a place in 
the public service will cease utterly when all workers 
are provided the most productive employment in which 
it is possible for them to be employed. 

719. Self-Government by All.— Whatever forms of 
organization may prevail, promotions will no longer 
be made by those in no way responsible to the workers; 



Chap. XXXIX THE CIVIL SERVICE AND SOCIALISM 533 

promotions in the service will be made only as tlie 
result of efficiency in the service. It will hardly be by 
a set examination to determine who is the best speller 
in order to secure an appointment in the fire depart- 
ment. Promotions could take place only as the re- 
sult of effective service and at the hands of fellow- 
workers, with whom the service had been rendered. 
.The efficiency of the industrial organization, the per- 
fection of the service and the liberty of the social pro- 
ducers under their own government would be com- 
plete. Intriguing and scheming for promotion, seek- 
ing to secure the good will of an absent employer by 
tale-bearing, misrepresentations, and conniving to se- 
cure the discredit and dismissal of immediate superi- 
ors will utterly disappear, because no tale-bearing will 
be necessary to inform ^ ^ the powers that be, ' ' when the 
*^ powers that be^' are one's associates in the same in- 
dustry, and are ever present at the same tasks, rather 
than an absent and supposed superior, with power to 
elevate one and disgrace another,, not because of his 
knowledge but because of the power which private 
ownership in industry makes possible. 

720. Loss of Self-Cantrol.— If it be claimed that 
such democracy in industry is not practicable, because 
the workers are not now capable of self-government, 
then, the answer is that if this is true, it is the fault 
of capitalism. A hundred years ago, whatever indus- 
tries were carried on in the old household method of 
production were managed by the people who them- 
selves did the work. There were no whistles to call 
them to their tasks; no walking bosses, no foremen to 
hold them busily to their undertakings. The spinning 
and weaving and other industries carried on by the 
women were subject to their own management, and the 
product was large or small, according to their own self- 
direeted industry. The same was true throughout prac* 



534 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

tically all of tlie employments of one hundred years 
ago. If the workers of to-day are incapable of setting 
themselves to work, it is because of lack of ex- 
perience in doing so under capitalism; it is therefore 
the fault of capitalism, and if for no other reason, cap- 
italism ought to be abandoned in order that the work- 
ers, by actual practice in the direction of their own in- 
dustry, may again be restored to the power of self- 
possession and self-direction. 

721. More Democracy.— De Tocqueville said one 
hundred years ago, in discussing *^ American Insti- 
tutions," that there are evils of democracy, but that 
'^the only remedy for the evils of the democracy is 
more democracy.'' The workers can never be made 
free men until they are given the power of self-direc- 
tion in their daily tasks. This they can never have un- 
der capitalism. 

722. The Current Slavery.— Mr. Spencer was quite 
correct in warning the people against the coming slav- 
ery, only he located his slavery in the wrong place.. 
Capitalism is making of all workers dependent hired 
men and hired girls, with no voice in the management 
of the enterprises in which they are wearing out their 
lives. This is certainly a coming slavery, which for 
most of the workers has already arrived.^ The way 
out is not in opposition to Socialism, but in the over- 
throw of capitalism and the inauguration of the co- 
operative commonwealth. 

723. Management by the Competent.— It is unrea- 
sonable to affirm that those who are doing the work 

1. "Let me state what I conceive to be the essential characteristics 
of Human Slavery: 

"1. Wherever certain human beings devote their time and thoughts 
mainly to obeying and serving other human beings, and this not be- 
cause they choose to do so, but because they must, there (I think) is 
Slavery. 

"2. Wherever human beings exist in such relations that a part, 
because of the position they occupy and the functions they perform. 



Chap. XXXIX THE CIVIL SERVICE AND SOCIALISM 535 

know less about it tlian those who are not so engaged. 
It is unreasonable to affirm that those who are present 
at any task know less about it than those who are ab- 
sent. It is unreasonable to affirm that the interests 
of an absent boss in securing profits would be great- 
er, and would operate to secure a greater efficiency in 
the control of industry than would be the interest of 
the workers, when all of the products would be their 
own, and the neglect, or carelessness, or incompetence 
of any worker would be a direct injury and offense 
against all of his shop-mates working at his side. 

724. The Dismissal of the Shop Spy.— It is true 
that in the modern factory each worker inclines to 
protect each other worker in all these wrongs, neglects 
and injuries to the enterprise in which they are en- 
gaged. In the veTy nature of the case, if the absent 
master is to know, he must fill the ranks with spies, 
and the task of the spy will be regarded with con- 
tempt. Not so when the workers are engaged in their 
own task in securing, for the effort made, the largest 
possible returns. Then each will be directly and per- 



are generally considered an inferior class to those who perform other 
functions, or none, there (I think) is Slavery. 

"3. Wherever the ownership of the soil is so engrossed by a small 
part of the community that the far larger number are compelled to pay 
whatever the few may see fit to exact for the privilege of occupying and 
cultivating the earth, there is something very like Slavery. 

"4. Wherever opportunity to labor is obtained with difficulty, and 
is so deficient that the employing class may virtually prescribe their 
own terms and pay the laborer only such share as they choose of the 
product, there is a very strong tendency to Slavery. 

"5. Wherever it is deemed more reputable to live without labor 
than by labor, so that 'a gentleman' would be rather ashamed of his 
descent from a blacksmith than from an idler or mere pleasure seeker, 
there is a community not very far from Slavery. And, 

"6. Wherever one human being deems it honorable and right to 
have other human beings mainly devoted to his or her convenience or 
comfort, and thus to live, diverting the labor of these persons from all 
productive or general usefulness to his or her own special uses, while he 
or she is rendering or has rendered no corresponding service to the cause 
of human well-being, there exists the spirit which originated and still 
sustains Human Slavery." — ^Horace Greeley: In a letter to National 
Convention of Abolitionists at Cincinati, Ohio, June 3, 1845. 



536 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

sonally interested by instruction, by encouragement, 
by mutual help, and by personal sacrifice to contribute 
to the utmost to tbe efficiency of all. 

725. Just and Rational Promotion.— An inefficient 
foreman would not be possible; he would not for an 
hour be tolerated by the workers,— whose income un- 
der Socialism would depend in part on the efficiency 
of their foremen. It would be to the economic interest 
of every man in the department to select the best pos- 
sible foremen. His selection and promotion would be 
inevitable. The self-seeking working man, attempt- 
ing to disarrange an effective organization for per- 
sonal advantage, could not exist. He could secure no 
advantage in such a way, and if he could he would be 
covered with contempt. Promotion, in the nature of 
the case, would be for merit only,' and no promotion 
could ever make one worker the arbitrary master of 
another. The arbitrary discipline, the uniform, the 
military tactics, the system of spies, the struggle for 
place, the disfranchisement of public servants, these 
and every other wrong under the present public serv- 
ice will disappear under Socialism, for whatever the 
method of organization or of management under the 
co-operative commonwealth, relations of mastery and 
servitude and of economic dependence will utterly dis- 
appear. 

726. Summary.— 1. Workers in the public service 
are now taken from the labor market, employed under 
a boss in whose election they have no voice, and work 
under rules in the establishment of which they are not 
consulted. 

2. Public employes, under capitalism, compete with 
other workers for employment and are led to consent 
to conditions to which they would not submit were it 
not for the army of the unemployed, or the more poorly 



Chap.XXXIX the civil service and socialism 537 

employed, who are waiting to take their places from 

them. ^ 

3. The miiform, the arbitrary discipline, the mili- 
tary tactics, the system of spies, the struggle for place, 
together with the whole relationship of mastery and 
servitude, will disappear from the public service on 
the coming of Socialism. 

4. Under Socialism self-employment, self-govern- 
ment, management by the competent, together with 
just and rational promotion, will prevail in all indus- 
trial, or other collective employments now subject to 
either public or private control. 

5. Socialism is not a * * coming slavery, ^ ' it is the in- 
dustrial emancipation of all the slaves. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What is feared by those who speak of the "coming slavery" ? 

2. What is meant by the civil service? 

3. What relation does the civil service worker sustain to his 
"superior" ? 

4. What are the usual conditions of employment? 

5. What would be the difference between employment by the gov- 
ernment and self -employment under Socialism? 

6. Are the workers capable of carrying on self-government in the 
shops ? Explain. 

7. What is the best remedy for the evils of democracy? Explain. 

8. Would Socialism mean management by the competent ? Explain. 

9. What would become of the shop spy on the coming of Social- 
ism? Why? 

10. Would the incapable be promoted und» Socialism? Why? 



CHAPTER XL 

STATUS OF WOMAN AND SOCIALISM 

"J27. Disfrandiised Women.— The political dis- 
iyanch?scment of woman is an incident in tlie economic 
development of the world's life. 

728. Economic Dependence. — Economic depend- 
ence always involves inferiority of political power.^ 

• This is as trne of men as of women. In primitive so- 
ciety women were not the economic dependents of men, 
neither were they without voice in the management of 
their own industry. The earliest division of labor, as 
well as the earliest social organization, was effected 
along sex lines, not because of the brutality of men, 
nor because of any natural dependence of women upon 
men, either for their sustenance or for their defense. 

729. Primitive Self-Govemment.— The building of 

1. "As woman becomes more free in the use and ownership of 
wealth, her freedom in selecting her mate is greater. She has never been 
without the desire for exclusive ownership of all the affections of her 
husband. Her mental capacity in that respect has always been equal 
to that of the man. In the moral estimation of woman, whether she be 
slave or free, polygamy has always been wrong. But her desires have 
not always been consulted. Her capacity for exclusive possession has 
not been left perfectly free to act. Her freedom in this respect is en- 
larging, truly, but this fact is the result of the larger economic liberties 
she is rapidly acquiring. It needs no argument to establish the truth 
of the simple fact that if a woman be rich she will have a wider choice 
of mates than if she is forced to rely upon the labor of a man for her 
livelihood." — Lane: The Level of Social Motion, p. 644. 

538 



esAP. XIj status of woman and socialism 539 

the first fires required that some one should stay by 
the fires to keep them alive because of the very great 
difficulty of re-kindling tbem when once the fires were 
gone out. The very great difficulty of woman, with 
her suckling young, going on the long tramps on the 
fishing excursions, naturally assigned to the men the 
task of catching the fish, and to the women the task of 
** keeping the fire,'^ but the women were as free, as 
independent, as self-possessed, and as thoroughly the 
masters of the industries which they built up around 
the fires as were the men on their fishing excursions. 
Throughout the later periods of savagery, and 
throughout all the years of barbarism, the women or- 
ganized their industries, developed their tools, man- 
aged their gardens, their firesides, their domestic 
manufacturing enterprises, and their voice was su- 
preme in all these matters. 

730. The Soldier and the Master.— It has been seen, 
in Chapter IV , how the fishermen grew to be hunters; 
how the hunters finally became soldiers; how the sol- 
diers finally brought home their captives to make 
slaves of them; how industry ceased to be the work of 
women and became the work of slaves; and how the 
military masters who governed the military camps and 
directed the activty of the soldiers also controlled 
the slave camps, and so, at last, became the masters 
of the industries which throughout the period of sav- 
agery and barbarism had been the special field of the 
free, self-governing activity of women. Under the 
military organization of industry, which came with 
the institution of chattel slavery, the women either be- 
came slaves along with the other workers, or the pets 
and playthings of the military masters. 

731. Voting Instead of Fighting, — When the fran- 
chise was finally given, the voting was a substitute for 
fighting. The women were not in the army, and solely 



540 CURRENT PROBLEMS PaetV 

because they were no share of the military establish 
ments of the world they were not given votes, not be- 
cause of the selfishness or brutality of the soldiers, but 
simply because they were not present, and, therefore, 
not considered. 

732. Limited Franchise of Working Men.— The 
elective franchise has been given but slowly to the 
men who are workers. In no country are the workers 
permitted to vote purely in consideration of the fact 
that they are human beings, with only such restrictions 
as could guard the public against misrepresentations 
and fraud. A very large percentage of the voters in 
the United States are not able to vote on election days 
because of requirements of residence and other consid- 
erations, not essential to protecting the public against 
fraud, and in no other country is the franchise so uni- 
versal. In most modem states, some share of the 
workers, and in many of them a large share, are per- 
mitted to vote, but their right to vote is limited to the 
electing of certain officers to political positions, and is 
so exericsed as to make the disfranchisement of the 
men in all matters relating directly to the control of 
the great industries, by which they produce their liv- 
ing, as absolute in the case of men as it is in the case 
of women. 

733. Disfranchised at the Shops.— In no country 
does the worker have any voice as a voter in determin- 
ing his hours of labor, the rate of his speed, the share 
of the product which shall fall to him, nor in any way 
a voice in the control of the industries in which he 
earns his living. He may vote for candidates for elect- 
ors, who in turn vote for the president, who in turn 
may appoint the postmasters, but industrially he is 
disfranchised: The shops, mines, factories, trains, all 
can be stopped or **shut down'' and he be starved, yet 
he has no vote in the matter; the general superintend- 



Chap. XL STATUS OF WOMAN AND SOCIALISM 541 

ent, the division superintendent, the local superintend- 
ent, the department foreman, the section boss the mine 
boss,— all these are selected in utter defiance of the 
wishes of the millions of the politically enfranchised 
toilers. This is an industrial despotism within a polit- 
ical democracy. 

734. SociaJists and Equal Suffrage.— The Social- 
ists are everywhere in favor of universal suffrage, and 
that this shall apply to the women as well as to the 
men. But it is of more importance to both men and 
women that the franchise shall be extended to their 
economic interests than that they shall even be voters 
at all, if they are still to be disfranchised in all of the 
undertakings related to the struggle for the means of 
life. The political franchise which working men have, 
is of but little value to them except as a means of se- 
curing the industrial franchise which they ought to 
have. 

735. Self-Government of the Women at Work.— 
The women who are factory workers and shop girls 
will completely transform their relations to industry so 
soon as they are enfranchised, not only at the ballot 
box, in voting for men who vote for other men, who 
appoint the postmaster, but in voting directly and on 
all the details of the organization and management of 
their own employment.^ 

736. Equal Industrial and Political Rights for All. 
—The relations of the equal and universal suffrage 
campaign to the Socialist movement are of the great- 
est importance. In most countries the workers are 

2. "But the most impressive instance of waste takes place in what 
we may oall the woman power of the community. More of it is due to 
poverty than is the case with men; for if parents have to choose be- 
tween spending money on a son or a daughter, it is invariably the son 
who is' preferred. But still more is due to the prejudice which considers 
it either unnecessary or undesirable to cultivate a woman's power, a 
prejudice which is only very gradually breaking down. And the harm 
that is done to the community by this particular branch of waste is of 



542 CURRENT PROBLEMS PabtV 

still fighting for the opportunity to be heard at the 
ballot box. The elective franchise can never be ex- 
tended to those who are not permitted to vote at all, 
and extended for those who are now voters in some 
matters, so that all shall be given an equal voice in the 
management of all common interests, by any other 
means than by using to the utmost such political power 
as the workers now have. It is a principle in evolution 
that an effort of any organism to function in any. par- 
ticular way is the process by which new organs are de- 
veloped and perfected. The only means by which the 
workers, either men or women, can hope to extend 
their political and economic power is by using to the 
uttermost the power which they already possess. The 
fact that the workers cannot vote at the factory door 
is a reason why they should be all the more careful to 
vote, and always to vote for themselves, at the ballot 
box. The political power of the working class will 
grow, only as the working class exercises to the utter- 
most the poltical power which it already possesses. 

737. Women in Politics.— All of the days of the 
year, except election day, the personal influence, the 
voice, the power to tell and to persuade is as much the 
right of women as it is of men. Those who wish to 
extend the voice of womanhood to the ballot box will 
secure the right to speak through the ballot box most 
speedily and effectively by speaking in every other 
way, in spite of their exclusion from the ballot box, 
and in spite of the legal discriminations against woman 
which so far prevail in most of the modem states. 

a kind to multiply itself indefinitely. The lack of training to skilled 
work reacts upon the physical condition of the women, both through 
the exhausting nature of the rough work which they are forced to do, 
and from their inability to earn sufficient to keep themselves strong; 
and this physical injury tells inevitably upon the strength of the next 
generation. From a business point of view no form of waste could be sg 
bad as this, and there is none which is so considerable at the present 
day." — Basanquet: The Strength of the People, p. 67. 



Chap. XL STATUS OF WOMAN AND SOCIALISM 543 

738. Industrial Emancipation.— There is no field 
where political activity on the part of woman can 
count so much for her enfranchisement as in her work 
for the economic rights of the toilers everywhere and 
particularly for the economic rights of women and 
children. If the working women everywhere will join 
in the fight for their own industrial emancipation, they 
will accomplish most for their own political enfran- 
chisement. 

739. Summary.— 1. The disfranchisement of wom- 
en is an inheritance from barbarian war. 

2. The enfranchisement of men is only partial, for 
neither men nor women are given any voice in the man- 
agement of the industries where they are employed. 

3. The Socialists alone contend for the complete 
enfranchisement of all men and women with equal po- 
litical and industrial rights for all. 

4. For both men and women the speediest way to 
increase their rights either at the ballot box or at the 
shop is to use to the uttermost all of the political rights 
or powers which they at any time possess. 

• REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Why are women disfranchised? 

2. Why does economic dependence always involve political in- 
feriority ? 

3. Under what conditions have women had full possession of their 
own affairs? 

4. How did women become the economic dependents of the men? 

5. What was the earliest meaning of the elective franchise? 

6. Are the men fully enfranchised with all just industrial rights? 

7. How would self-government on the part of all workers affect 
the employments of women? 

8. How would economic independence on the part of all women af- 
fect the strength of motherhood? Quote note from Basanquet. 

9. In what way can both men and women most effectively extend 
their politieal power? 



CHAPTEE XLI 

THE RACE PROBLEM AND SOCIALISM 

740. Its Importance.— The race problem is a real 
problem and a most difficult one. The problem is not 
solved by denying its existence or by belittling its im- 
portance. 

741. The Chinese Question.— The Chinese civriiza- 
tion is very ancient. Chinese labor coming into com- 
petition, in the world labor market, with the labor of 
more modern and more progressive nations, places the 
Caucasian worker in a position where he must yield 
his opportunity to live at all, or consent to live accord- 
ing to the standard of living accepted by his Mongolian 
competitors. 

742. The Negro Question.— The black race either 
exists in Africa as savages or barbarians, or, as a rule, 
in other countries as the children of kidnaped sav- 
ages, with no further knowledge of civilization nor op- 
portunity to develop from the status of savagery to 
the status of civilized society than has been afforded 
during the three hundred years of bondage in the cot- 
ton fields and sugar plantations of our Southern states. 

743. Race Competition.— The problem resulting 
from the competition of Chinese labor and of black la- 
bor with workers of European birth, or workers of 

544 



Chap.XLI the KACE PROBLEM AND SOCIALISM 545 

European ancestry, is particularly a problem of the 
United States. The race problem involves more than 
the labor problem which results from the competition 
of white men with those just out of savagery, as is the 
case with black men, or with those exhausted and over- 
borne by an ancient and different civilization, as is 
the case with Chinese labor. There are the further 
problems as to the outcome of the mixing of these 
races, of their social relations and of their political and 
social rights when living together under the authority 
of the same government. It is not the purpose of this 
chapter to attempt to deal with these questions fur- 
ther than to discuss their relations to current economic 
problems and to point out how largely all these prob- 
lems will lose their importance on the coming of So- 
cialism. 

744. Industrial Training.— Industrial training for 
the negro is no solution of the negro problem. Unques- 
tionably it will make the negro a more effective com- 
petitor with the white man in the labor market, but 
it in no way affects the problem of establishing peace 
between the races. As the intelligence and efficiency 
of the black man is increased, it does not solve the 
problem; it only emphasizes the necessity for some so- 
lution. 

So far the black man has surrendered. Industrial 
training will add to his strength, and as his conscious 
power increases he will be less willing to surrender. 
The demand for justice will be intensified rather than 
satisfied by the industrial schools. 

745. Disfranchisement. — Disfranchising the col- 
ored man and enforcing his economic dependence by 
depriving him of his political power, cannot settle the 
problem. As his industrial power and his general in- 
telligence increases, either with the ballot or without 
the ballot, he will find some means of demanding his 



546 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

economic rights. It does not settle the problem. It 
simply gives further temporary control to the master, 
while it leaves untouched all the wrongs incident to 
the economic dependence of this untrained race. 

746. Forbidding Marriages. — Forbidding mar- 
riages across race lines will not prevent the mingling 
of African and Caucasian blood. It is not because of 
marriages that the kidnaped black men have been los- 
ing the density of their blackness during the three hun- 
dred years of enforced residence in America. 

747. Trajasporting.— Transporting the black man 
to other and distant countries could not be a solution 
of the question, because if capable black workers 
should be taken to Africa, means for the employment 
of their labor in producing for the markets of the 
world would be taken with them. While some of the 
social features of the problem would in this way be 
largely disposed of, their industrial competition with 
the white producer would still remain. 

748. **A White Man's World.''-It has been pro- 
posed that this shall be made a white man's world, that 
the black and yellow races shall be given certain 
boundaries within which they may operate, and that- 
some means shall be provided for their practical ex- 
termination everywhere else. It is interesting to note 
that a part of the same program is to provide for the 
industrial exploitation of the so-called inferior races 
by the same forces which propose to make this a white 
man's world. It does not matter how closely yellow 
men and black men are held to any certain or distant 
territory. So long as it is understood that their labor 
is to be exploited and any share of their products 
placed in the world's market in competition with the 
products of white workers, the industrial race problem 
will remain. 

749. Chinese Exclusion.— The exclusion of the 



Chap.XLI the race PROBLEM AND SOCIALISM 547 

Chinese from the United States has not been accom- 
panied by, nor has it anywhere been proposed that it 
shonld be accompanied by the exclusion of American 
machinery from Chinese territory or the exclusion of 
Chinese products from the world's market. If cheap 
Chinese labor is forbidden to use American machinery 
in American shops, that will not prevent cheap produc- 
tion by the use of Chinese labor and American ma- 
chinery. It simply means that if the Chinaman cannot 
come to the United States, the American machine will 
go to China and the products of the yellow working 
man, equipped with the white man's tools and subject 
to the white man's management, will compete in the 
world's market with the products of the white man's 
labor. 

750. Race Antagonisms and Economic Interests.— 
Let us give attention to the inquiry as to the cause 
of the intense antagonism between races. Surely 
neither the black man nor the Chinaman are inferior 
to the inferior animals which are made the pets and 
servants of white men with no feeling of antagonism 
or of race hatred existing between the animals and the 
men. So long as the black man remains ^ ' in his place, ' ' 
as it is said, so long as he performs the duties of a 
servant and assumes in no way whatever to ask for the 
opportunities .of a man, there is no feeling of antag- 
onism between the races. It is when the negro or the 
Chinaman, as it is said, ^^ assumes to be a white man" 
that the trouble follows. The white man assumes the 
relations of mastery with himself the master. The 
white man holds the position of economic and political 
power and will not countenance any action on the part 
of an inferior race which involves social recognition or 
the possession of economic or political power on the 
part of the inferior race in competition with himself. 

751. Mastery and Servitude.— But the antagonism 



548 CURRENT PROBLEMS PaetV 

between one white man who is a master and another 
white man who is his personal servant is just as keen 
and as bitter as it can be between white masters and 
black servants. Whenever the menial who is a white 
man assumes the prerogatives of a master, he loo must 
stay *4n his place," or the class war becomes as in- 
tense as the result of these antagonistic economic rela- 
tions between white men with each other as it is be- 
tween men of different races, so far as the cause of the 
conflict between the different races is an economic 
cause. 

752. Labor Unions and the Race War.— Formerly 
the labor unions refused membership to the black men 
and attempted to protect themselves from the compe- 
tition of the black workers by excluding the black man 
from the opportunity to earn his bread in any trade 
where organized white men were employed, but the 
industrial schools have been making the black worker 
a skilled worker, and labor unions, even in southern 
states, have conceded the necessity of the organization 
of all laborers whether black or white, if the economic 
interests of either are to be in any way protected by 
the labor unions. The fact that they are usually or- 
ganized in separate unions in no way affects the force 
of the fact that the right to organize and to hold char- 
ters from the same organizations as white unions has 
been conceded to the black workers along with the 
rest.^ 

1. Because of this boycotting of black workers in shops where 
white people are employed, some curious things have happened in 
northern shops taken to southern states. In both Alabama and Georgia 
organizers of the trades unions have found towns where the white 
children refuse to work if black children are employed, with the result 
that the white children get the jobs in the shops, and the black children 
— unable to secure employment — are putting in their time attending 
school. 

"I asked one of the largest employers of labor in the South if he 
feared the coming of the trade union. 'Xo.' he said, 'it is one good result 
of race prejudice, tjhat the negro will enable us in the long run to weaken 
the trade union so thai it cannot harm us. We can keep wages down 
with the negro, and we can prevent too much organization,' " — Brooks : 
Social Unrest, p. 2S. 



Chap.XLI the race PROBLEM AND SOCIALISM 549 

753. Illiterates.— The disfranchisement of illiterate 
voters intended to affect the southern negroes will in 
no way injuriously affect the efforts of the working 
men of the country in their effort to secure political 
power, in order to secure and protect their just eco- 
nomic rights. As long as the Eepublican party found 
it possible to use the black men's votes in the southern 
states to maintain that party in possession of the na- 
tional power, that party stood for the political rights 
of the blacks. The Republicans not only enfranchised 
the black men in the first place for the purpose of per- 
petuating that party's control in national affairs, but 
so soon as it was found possible to secure national con- 
trol and abandon the black men they were abandoned 
by the northern capitalists in control of the Republican 
organization. In many of the northern states the Dem- 
ocratic party is contending with the Republicans foi 
the control of the colored vote. Either party is willing 
to talk for the black man's political rights so far as 
either needs his ballot. Both these parties are con- 
trolled by the economic masters of the black men. 
Neither of them will act in behalf of the economic 
rights of the blacks without which all political rights 
are robbed of their power to help the black men in their 
struggle for existence. There is not a southern state, 
nor a northern one, where the prejudice against the 
blacks is so intense that the capitalistic masters, both 
North and South, would hesitate to use the black man's 
ballot if it should be found necessary to do so in order 
to prevent the political triumph of the white working 
men. 

754. Illiteracy and Socialism.— The disfranchise- 
ment of illiterates, black or white, will not delay the 
Socialist movement, for it is not the ignorant and in- 
capable working man to whom the Socialist must ad- 
dress his appeal in the effort to organize the workers 



550 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

for the purpose of protecting themselves and securing 
tlieir own welfare as workers, through the use of the 
power of the state. 

755. An Italian Example.— A recent effort of the 
capitalists of Italy to enfranchise the most ignorant 
and most helpless workers in order to use their votes 
to prevent the election of the Socialists is a fair sample 
of what may be expected of the capitalists in their re- 
lations to the ignorant and incapable working men 
both black and white. It is not the ignorance and dis- 
order and the incompetence of the white workers, or 
of the black ones, from which the economic masters of 
both have most to fear. It is their intelligence, their 
capacity for self-control, for effective organization, for 
united action. It is these which will destroy capital- 
ism. 

756. Hating Because Fighting— Not Fighting Be- 
cause Hating.— It has been seen, in Chapter IV, how 
the barbarian inter-tribal wars were economic wars. 
It was the necessity for more land, in order to support 
larger herds, in order to support the growing popula- 
tion of the barbarian tribe, which compelled it to seek 
to capture the lands of the other tribes. Nothing is 
more interesting than the reported addresses which 
the barbarian chieftains are said to have delivered to 
their own tribesmen, exalting the virtues of their own 
soldiers, the excellencies of their own tribes and the 
certain favor of their own gods, together with the 
marvelously superior qualities of their own gods, while 
contrasting all these with the inferior deities of in- 
ferior powers, besides cataloguing all the weaknesses 
and loathsome qualities which they attributed to the 
people whom they were about to attack in order to 
appropriate their lands. That is, at the bottom, these 
ancient tribes did not fight each other because they 
hated each other. They hated each other because they 



Chap. XLI THE RACE PROBLEM AND SOCIALISM 531 

were fighting each other, and they were fighting each 
other for more land. 

757. Slandering the Enemy.— The most recent in- 
stance of this same sort of proceeding is the attacks of 
the American press on the character of the Spaniards, 
and later on the character of the Filipinos, not because 
the bad qualities complained of could not be found 
at home, but solely in order to excite and enlist the 
hatred of the many in order to turn the fruits of hateful 
war, at the hands of the many, to the economic advan- 
tage of the few. 

Englishmen and Americans have not entirely recov- 
ered from the hatred resulting from the wars of a hun- 
dred years ago. They did not go to war because they 
hated each other. They hated each other because they 
had gone to war, and they went to war over a purely 
economic controversy. 

For many years after the American Civil War, it 
cost a man the confidence and respect of his neigh- 
bors, in either the North or the South, if heard speak- 
ing in favorable terms of any of the people belonging 
to those sections of the country against whom they had 
been engaged in war. Again, the people of these sec- 
tions did not go to war because they hated each other. 
They hated each other because they had been engaged 
in war, and they went to war over a clash of purely 
economic interests. 

758. Eaoe Hatred and Robbery.— The same is true 
of race hatreds. Eaces do not hate each other because 
of color, or character, or personal habits, or lack of cul- 
ture. Caucasian ignorance, uncleanliness and vice are 
just as loathsome as the same qualities found with the 
yellow man or the black man, but when these (|ualities 
are found to belong to those whose interests are an- 
tagonistic to our own and the economic war is on, there 
is enough of barbarism and of savagery still in our 



552 CUHKENT PKOBLEMS PartV 

nature to enable ns to make a liard fight for an eco- 
nomic advantage- and to pretend to ourselves tliat the 
real reason for fighting is to be found in the bad quali- 
ties of those whom we are striving to whip in order 
to rob. 

759. Competing For Jobs.— Two white men are 
competing with each other for the same opportunity to 
be employed: ^'A" offers to work for $3.00 a day 
and '^B'' offers to do the same task for $2.00 a day,— 
then *^A'' accepts $1.00 and ^*B" accepts 50 cents, and 
a Chinaman or a negro consents to do the work for 40 
cents, a bid which neither '*A" nor **B'' can meet, and 
so both lose their opportunity for employment, and 
join hands in an effort to exclude the Chinaman and 
the negro from an opportunity to be employed at all. 
The white men's fight with the black man and the 
Chinaman is not because the one is black and the other 
yellow. It is the same fight which they were just be- 
fore having with each other. It is for an opportunity 
to be employed. It is the same fight which goes on 
between the union man who has a job and the non- 
union man who is attempting to secure for himself an 
opportunity to earn his bread, but at the expense of 
his brother who is already employed. 

As long as workingmen compete with each other for 
the opportunity to be employed ; as long as races which 
maintain an inferior standard of living compete with 
other races which maintain a higher standard of living, 
so long the economic war must go on, and, hence, so 
long the race wars must remain as the most repulsive 
and the most aggravating feature of this world-wide 
struggle for existence. 

760. Socialism Ends the Economic War.— But So- 
cialism will end all this. It will not place one white 
man in competition with another for the opportunity 
to earn a living, because of lack of employment for all. 



Chap.XLI the race PROBLEM AND SOCIALISM 653 

It will not place one nation in competition with other 
nations for the control of world markets, because the 
workers at home are nnahle to buy with their wages the 
wealth which their own hands create. It will not place 
the less developed races in competition with the more 
highly advanced races for the opportunity to sell their 
labor to the few masters who are exploiting, alike, all 
the laborers of all the races of mankind, and hence the 
coming of Socialism will end the race war so far as 
it is an economic war. 

761. Necessary Race Differences Remain.— It is in^ 
conceivable, however, that the race characteristics re- 
sulting from the widely differing lines of development 
xmder which the races have come to their present con- 
ditions, will not continue to maintain social distinc- 
tions of the most marked character, if not forever, at 
least for many centuries in the future. What culture 
and liberty may be able to accomplish for the inferior 
races, if such races really exist, it is impossible to pre- 
dict. There is nothing in Socialism which proposes 
to enforce upon the attention of any one, or to compel 
the recognition by any one of any other who is person- 
ally distasteful in any way. There is no ground for 
contending that a white man will be required in any 
way to associate with a black man, a yellow man or 
another white man who shall be found to be, because 
of character, or color, or any other reason, distasteful 
to him. As a matter of fact the colored population of 
the United States are even now gradually gathering 
into a few localities from which the white people are 
as gradually withdrawing. When the economic rea- 
sons for the presence of the white men among the 
blacks, in order to exploit their labor, shall cease to 
operate, there is every reason to believe that this ten- 
dency to separation, and the tendency to preserve and 



554 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

to protect the race characteristics of eacli race, will be- 
come more marked than ever. 

762. End of Race Robbery and Hatred.— It is in- 
conceivable that an offensive mixture of the races 
could result from the coming of Socialism. All Sociah 
ism attempts to do is to abolish exploitation. All 
workers will be entitled to the total product of their 
labor. No laborer, whether white or black, will be 
entitled to any more, nor will he be willing to accept 
any less. "With the disappearance of economic inequal- 
ity of opportunity, all class antagonism resulting from 
the current clash of class interests must disappear. 
Class wars, international wars and race wars, for eco- 
nomic causes, will be forever at an end. When there 
is no longer any economic advantage in exciting hatred 
and in fomenting strife, it is difficult to conceive of any 
other human interest strong enough, and at the same 
time vile enough, to involve the people in mutual 
hatred, to say nothing of the mutual butcheries inci- 
dent to the age-long economic struggles which have re- 
sulted from the economic inequality of opportunity 
which is inherent in capitalism but will be impossible 
under Socialism. 

763. Summary.— 1. Eace wars are at bottom eco- 
nomic wars. 

2. White labor in competition with Chinese and 
negro labor must adopt the standard of living of the 
negro and of the Chinaman or be displaced by them. 

3. Industrial training, disfranchisement, forbid- 
ding inter-race marriages, or transporting will not af- 
fect the economic race war with the negro. 

4. Chinese exclusion or making this *' a white man's 
world ' ' does not dispose of the Chinese question if cap- 
italism is to remain. 

5. Ignorance, disorder and incompetence are the 



Chap.XLI the race PROBLEM AND SOCIALISM 555 

foes of Socialism and the allies of capitalism among 
all races. 

6. Socialism will abolish all economic wars, includ- 
ing the economic wars of the races. Bnt race charac- 
teristics, with mutual race aversions, except as they ex- 
ist for economic causes, will remain untouched by So- 
cialism. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Wliat is the effect on white workers when brought into compe- 
tition with black and yellow races? 

2. What effect does industrial training for the negro have on the 
question ? 

3. Will disfranchising the negro affect the economic problem? 

4. Will forbidding inter-race marriages or transporting negroes end 
the industrial race war ? WTiy ? 

5. Will making this "a white man's world" dispose of the indus- 
trial race war, either as related to Chinamen or negroes? 

6. Why will Chinese exclusion not settle the question of Chinese 
labor? 

7. Explain the cause of race wars. 

8. What is the position of labor unions on the race question? 

9. Explain the relation of the current political parties to the negro's 
vote. 

10. Prove that races hate each other because they fight — not fight 
because they hate. 

li. Why, then, do races fight? 

12. How will Socialism end the economic war between the races? 

13. Can Socialism remove radical race characteristics? Do the So- 
cialists propose interference in any matters of that sort? 

14. Will the races hate each other imder Socialism? 



CHAPTEE XLII 

THE TRAFFIC IN VICE AND SOCIALISM 

764. What Is Vice?— The term vice in this chapter 
is used as meaning the habitual departure from those 
natural sanitary usages which are necessary for the 
well-being both of the individual and of society. 

765. Drugs.— In this sense the habitual and harm- 
ful use of drugs, such as opium, narcotics, cocaine and 
alcohol are vices. 

766. Trifling With Life.— All physical and sexual 
self-indulgences, in violation of the necessary relation- 
ships incident to the maintenance of such clean and 
wholesome conditions of family life as are necessary 
to guard the sources of child life from pollution and 
to protect childhood and youth from the demoraliza- 
tion which always follows in the wake of unbridled 
animalism, are vices. 

767. Games of Chance.— All games of chance by 
which the means of life are offered in hazard, when 
the risk is not a necessary uncertainty as a part of the 
natural lot of man, but instead the hazard is made by 
some artificial contrivance and is used as a means of 
getting gain, not because of services rendered, but be- 
cause of chances taken, are vices, because all such 

556 



Chap. XLII THE TRAFFIC IN VICE AND SOCIALISM 557 

transactions throw into confusion all sense of fair play 
between man and man and base the right of possession 
on the chances of a game of chance rather than on 
service. This makes all playing of games of chance, 
when played for gain, a vice. This must include the 
chances of the board of trade as well as those of the 
gaming table, with this difference, that speculation is 
as much the greater vice as the stakes of trade are 
of greater value than the nickels of the slot machines. 

768. The Traffic in Vice.— If the habitual and harm- 
ful use of drugs is a vice, then the traffic in these drugs 
for the purpose of providing these harmful indulgences 
is an instance of The Traffic in Vice. 

If the habitual abuse of the sexual relations is a vice, 
then the renting of property in order to provide a reg- 
ular market where those who seek these indulgences 
may be able to buy the bodies of others for that pur- 
pose, and the management of such market places for a 
profit, are instances of The Traffic in Vice. 

If betting on cards or on artificial markets is a vice, 
then providing an opportunity for doing such things 
for the purpose of gain, is an instance of The Traffic 
in Vice. 

769. Socialism and the Traffic in Vice.— What will 
be the effect of the coming of Socialism on The Traffic 
in Vice! 

770. Stimulants and Narcotics Under Capitalism.— 
1. As to the harmful use of drugs: The physical ex- 
haustion which so largely creates the demand for stim- 
ulants and narcotics is largely the result of overwork, 
of long hours, of unsanitary shops. It is the result of 
being born with a low degree of vitality, poorly fed, 
poorly clothed, lack of physical training, ignorance of 
the laws of health, and of sleeping in tenements by 
night as unsanitary and unwholesome as are the sweat 
shops by day. So far as the harmful use of drugs 



558 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

comes from these sources, it will utterly disappear un- 
der Socialism.^ For it is inconceivable that, whenever 
industry shall be directly organized for the benefit of 
those who do the work, they will not immediately 
set themselves to work creating sanitary homes, build- 
ing sanitary shops and providing for rational sanitary 
hours of labor for themselves, together with pure food 
and perfect physical training. 

Again, the habitual and harmful use of drugs is very 
largely caused by abuses in their use for medical pur- 
poses. Under Socialism, the sale of drugs, as well as 
the sale of prescriptions for the use of drugs, for a 
profit, will disappear along with the whole profit sys- 
tem. The motive on the part of the man of special 
training to poison another, under the guise of render- 
ing a special service, will disappear, and so far as 
drugs are abused for the sake of the private gain of the 
physician, the quack or the druggist, with the disap- 
pearance of the profit system the harmful use of drugs 
which results from this cause must also disappear. 

Wherever the hours of labor have been shortened and 
the wages of the workers increased in any trade, the 
standard of living has been raised and the effort at 
self-improvement uniformly increased. Ignorance of 
the disastrous consequences of the use of drugs has 
made it possible for those financially interested in the 
sale of drugs to saturate the bodies of their victims 
with these harmful things. Without exception, in- 

1, "Now at last we are setting ourselves seriously to inquire wheth- 
er it is necessary that there need be large numbers of people doomed 
from their birth to hard work in order to provide for others the requisites 
of a refined and cultured life; while they ^themselves are prevented by 
their poverty and toil from having any share or part in that life. * * * 

"This progress has done more than anything else to give practical 
interest to the question whether it is really impossible that all should 
start in the world with a fair chance of leading a cultured life, free from 
the pains of poverty and the stagnating influences of excessive mechani- 
cal toil; and this question is being pressed to the front by the growing 
earnestness of the age/' — Marshall: Principles of Economics, pp. 3-4. 



Chap. XLII THE TRAFFIC IN VICE AND SOCIALISM 559 

terest in physical culture, in the development of strong 
bodieSj in seeking for personal improvement, either 
mentally or physically, always leads to a knowledge 
of the evil consequences of the harmful use of drugs, 
and consequently tends to its abandonment. 

Now, nothing has ever occurred in the life of the 
race to so stimulate this effort for personal improve- 
ment as will the coming of Socialism.^ 

Wlien claims for distinction must rest upon personal 
excellence, personal strength, personal beauty, person- 
al service,— when lying biographical notices can no 

2. "We make criminals now; for three-fourths of the crime com- 
mitted is by young men who have been temporarily led astray, and the 
fact that fifty per cent of all the convicts in the state prisf)ns of the 
United States are under twenty- six years of age only confirms this 
verdict." — Carroll D. Wright: Some Ethical Phases of the Labor Prob- 
lem, p. 57. 

"A fourth evil resulting from this concentration of wealth and con- 
sequent division of society into two classes, a few very rich and the 
many dependent upon them, is seen in the vices which such a social or- 
ganization tends to produce; the vices respectively of what Mr. Glad- 
stone has called the 'idle rich' and, the 'idle poor.' It is true that the 
great millionaires are not idle; they are generally the busiest of men. 
But their sons are not the busiest of men. Given an idle rich class, with 
plenty of money and none of that self-control which is learned in the 
school of industry, and there inevitably result the three gi'eat vices of 
America — gambling, drinking and licentiousness. On the other hand, 
given a great dependent class and a time of hardship when some of 
them can no longer get the right to use tools and earn their bread, and 
they become literally dependent upon charity and begin to listen to the 
man who says, 'The world owes you a living'; and when a man has be- 
gun to think that the world owes him a living, he has taken the first 
step toward getting his living by foul means if he cannot get it by fair. 
So out of the great working class the poor are recruited, and out of the 
poor the paupers, and out of the paupers the tramps, and out of the 
tramps the thieves, and out of the thieves the robbers. 

"Thus the ooncentratioH of wealth tends, first to material, second 
to political, third to industrial, and fourth to moral evil." — ^Abbott: 
Rights of Man, pp. 125-126. 

"Have you noticed," says Meng-Tsen, naively enough, "that in years 
of plenty many good actions are done, and that in poor years many bad 
actions are done?" Meng-Tsen is right; all the causes of discord among 
mankind are always a more or less complex transubstantiation of a piece 
of primitive bread; man's real sin is hunger in all its forms. An organ- 
ism completely nourished, not only in its framework and muscles, but in 
the finest ramifications of its nervous system, would be, but for morbid 
hereditary dispositions, a well- equilibrated organism. Every vice which 
reduces to a disequilibration thus reduces scientifically to the more or 
less incomplete nutrition of some deeply seated organ." — Guyau: Edu- 
cation and Heredity, p. 32. 



560 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

longer be purchased, when a long bank account can no 
longer be nsed to cover up physical deformities and 
moral outrages, then all men must give their attention 
to the improvement of themselves as the sole means 
of securing distinction, and the motive for the abandon- 
ment of harmful drugs and all other harmful practices 
will be greatly reinforced. The same motive will more 
strongly establish, than ever before, every sane and 
sanitary usage, either for the guidance of individuals 
or for the protection of society. 

771. The Traffic in Women. — 2. As to the traffic re- 
lated to sexual abuses, the same may be said. 

Traffic in the bodies of women will never cease in the 
markets where vicious indulgences are sold for gain, 
so long as the bodies of both men and women are 
bought and sold in the labor market for a private 
profit. Houses devoted to this purpose are made to 
earn enormous incomes and the landlords are usually 
found to be men and women of the highest rank, so 
far as social recognition by the social four hundred 
can ^x the rank of the members of that group. The 
helpless woman who, under economic necessity, or be- 
cause misled, betrayed and forsaken, now surrenders 
her body to a trafficker in vice, in the same manner in 
which her brother must surrender his body to his em- 
ployer, will never be required under Socialism to give 
her body for vicious purposes, for lack of opportunity 
to give her hands to the doing of useful labor. Then 
there will be no such helpless women. The power of 
a man to enforce demands of any sort because of the 
economic dependence of women will cease on the com- 
ing of industrial democracy. The temptation for men 
and women to rent their property for purposes which 
pollute the sources of life and spread physical disease 
and social disorder will disappear when the landlords 



Chaf.XLII the traffic in vice and socialism 561 

have given up the earth and all men and women have 
an opportmiity to live without paying personal tribute 
to any others.^ 

772. The Gamblers.— 3. As to gambling: It seems 
absurd for the masters of the market, whose wheels 
of fortune carry, as the stakes in their transactions, the 
means of life for the great multitudes of the people, to 
complain at the petty transactions of the wheels of 
fortune, or the gamesters ' cards, or the shaking of dice, 
or the corruption which follows the gaming at the 
races, for the evil which follows in the wake of these 
things is as nothing at all in comparison with the cor- 
ruption which all the year round is brought to bear on 
the youth of America from the very business of mak- 
ing a living, so filled is modem life with unnecessary 
chances. But the gamblers on the boards of trade, to- 
gether with the gamblers at the race track and the 
gaming room, will utterly lose their place and power as 
soon as it shall become impossible for any man to cor- 
ner and control the opportunity of another to earn his 
own livng on equal terms with all others. Under So- 



3. "In all civilized communities illegal, or immoral, polygamy ex- 
ists; but those who indulge in the practice are condemned by the social 
code. The practice is called 'the social evil,' and is regarded as the most 
painful and distressing phenomenon of civilized life. This kind of poly- 
gamy tends to disappear as "women become economically free. The 
number of "^"omen "who resort to that method of gaining a means of ex- 
istence is insignificant when compared with the number who engage in 
other pursuits. The method, too, is highly repugnant to those who use 
it. If honorable occupation were open to all women — occupation which 
would be liberally remunerative — there would be no 'social evil.' No 
woman will deliberately choose a profession which excludes her from as- 
sociation with her family, and society in general, when she is given an 
opportunity of earning a higher or an equal Avage in an honorable way 
of life. This M'ill be admitted by all. The professional com'tesan is 
only an exaggerated example of the economic marriage. The only dif- 
ference between her and the woman who marries, in a legal way, for 
convenience lies in the fact that the courtesan is the instrument of many 
men, while the economic wife is the instrument of only one. And in 
many instances the courtesan has the happier existence, if we eliminate 
her social disadvantages. The so-called 'social evil' is a question of 
pure economy. If the source of it be removed, the institution will 
disappear." — ^Lane: The Level of Social Motion, p. 546. 



562 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

cialism, it will be impossible for any gambler in the 
market ever to win by trade control of the opportunity 
of any other to earn his living on equal terms with all 
others. Under Socialism it will be equally impossible. 
^OY any gambler to either win or lose by the chances 
of any game the equal opportunity of all to earn and 
to obtain the means of life. "When the misfortunes of 
defeat are taken out of the game of trade and out 
of the game of cards, the gambler's zest for victory will 
also disappear. 

773. Sports Are Survivals.— It is a scientific prin- 
ciple that the sports of today are but the survivals of 
the serious business of former days. Base ball, foot 
ball, the horse race, the gamester's table, are survivals 
in the form of sport of the savage and barbarian war- 
fare which was unavoidable in the primitive life of the 
race. But the warfare of the market place, the war- 
fare of the workshop, the warfare which buys and sells 
the bodies of both men and women for purposes of 
trade, in the store and factory, as well as at the brothel, 
still disposes of the lives of its victims more ruthlessly, 
and with more disastrous consequences to those who 
fall, than did the tortures of savagery or the butchery 
of barbarism. Even the slaughter of the rapid-firing 
guns is merciful as^compared to trade. 

774. Gambling the Rule of the Market.— The vices 
of the gaming room can never be put aside as long as 
the outlawed usages of the game remain the lawful 
usages of the market. The misfortunes of war and the 
calamities of trade must cease their destruction of the 
most sacred human interests before there can be any 
rational grounds for demanding that the vices of the 
gambler be suppressed. When the profit system ceases 
in the market, the profit system will cease in the gam- 
ing room, and not before. The coming of Socialism 
will ^^call off" the warfare of the market. It will abol- 



Chap. XLII THE TRAFFIC IN VICE AND SOCIALISM 663 

isli the brutal sport of getting something for nothing 
as the main business of life. It may leave the sur- 
vivals of capitalism for the amusements of the future. 
The war of the market may remain as a survival in 
some harmless sport, but it will no more involve the 
fatal consequences of the current market than the game 
of base ball perpetuates the disasters of the primeval 
'^battles to the death/' which age-long series of inci- 
dents in the early life of the race created the instincts 
which make base ball possible. 

775. **A Roaring Farce.'*— Those who attend a 
comic opera in order to laugh at the absurdities of the 
life of the Middle Ages, ought to remember that the 
old battle-ax was not made of paper. When it was in 
real use it was a very serious affair. It would be just 
as entertaining to anticipate, were it possible to do so, 
the ^ ^ roaring farce ' ' which some wit of the future will 
make of the justice court, or of the supreme court 
either, as to that matter, when it shall be outgrown and 
shall not any longer be used for purposes of extortion 
and so may be freely laughed at as. it deserves to be. 

776.— Prohibition?— If it be asked whether under So- 
cialism, prohibition will prevail, it is impossible *to say. 
Under Socialism, the sale of drinks, and the sale of 
bread will alike be free from any motive for putting 
poison into the drink or alum into the bread. 

777. The Saloon.— Will the saloon remain? It is 
impossible to say. If it remains, the character of the 
saloon must be vastly improved. The bartender is to- 
day a hired man. The saloon keeper who thinks he 
owns his own establishment is the victim of the purest 
fiction. The drinks he sells are made by others. The 
prices he asks are fixed by others. The share he pays 
to society for the privilege of engaging in this business 
is fixed by others and is usually paid by others. The 
individual retailer in drinks and drugs is practically 



564 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

out of business, and tlie great syndicates which con- 
trol the liquor traffic, even now, in the midst of the 
terrible pressure for opportunities for employment, are 
able only with the greatest difficulty to find men with 
such qualities that they can trust them as their repre- 
sentatives in the traffic who still have the capacity 
to transact the business. Suppose every bartender in 
America should be given as good an opportunity to 
earn a living as any other man on the continent, free 
from discredit, free from the long hours, free from the 
disorders of the disorderly house, with himself and his 
family freed from the contempt of which both he and 
they are now the victims, but which they rarely de- 
serve, how many saloon keepers would bear the dis- 
credit of the disorderly resort for the sake of a busi- 
ness from which they were receiving no personal ad- 
vantages whatever. If places of drunkenness and dis- 
order shall exist under Socialism, it will be for their 
own sake and not for the sake of the profits. Then, 
for the first time in many centuries, if the vices remain, 
they must find a means of doing so without the special 
service of ^^The Trafficker in Vice." Some men will 
bear the discredit of being the keepers of disorderly 
houses for a profit in the sale of drinks, so long as 
others are willing to bear the discredit of being sharks 
or thieves for the sake of the profits in all other lines 
of trade. 

778. End of the Profit in Vice.— The profit system 
is responsible for the larger share of the harm done 
by drinks, drugs, cards, the races and the boards of 
trade. The profit system can be overthrown in The 
Traffic in Vice only by its overthrow in all other lines 
of business. The profit system can be overthrown only 
by the coming of Socialism. 

779. Total Abstinence.— If it is asked will total ab- 
stinence then prevail, we do not need to wait for the 



Chap. XLII THE TRAFFIC IN VICE AND SOCIALISM 565 

coming of Socialism to give a practical answer to this 
practical question, for if total abstinence does not pre- 
vail it is evident that self-possession and self-control 
will prevail, not because enforced by legislation or by 
social interference with the personal habits of the peo- 
ple, but because self-possession and self-control will 
speedily become a necessary condition to the comrade- 
ship essential to all rational human life when all men 
are free and personal excellence must become the sole 
ground for personal consideration. 

780. Summary.— 1. Back of all the vices are eco- 
nomic conditions which so weaken and waste the forces 
of life as to lead to the practice of the vices. 

2. Back of all the vices is The Traffic in Vice, for- 
ever setting a snare for the feet of others, in enter- 
prises where the profits of the trade of one depend on 
the physical and moral ruin of others. 

3. Socialism would make possible such industrial 
opportunities that the ignorance, the long hours, the 
exposure, the exhausting toil, the economic depend- 
ence, especially of women, which make the people easy 
victims of the vendors of drugs, of evil solicitations 
and of the chances of the games of chance will entirely 
disappear. 

4. Socialism would remove all temptation for one 
man to ruin another for a profit, and so to be a traf- 
ficker in the vices of others, by providing equal oppor- 
tunity for rational and humane employment for all. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. What is vice? 

2. What is The Traffic in Vice ? 

3. How will Socialism affect the harmful use of drugs ? As to sani- 
tation? As to medical use and as to physical training? 

4. Why will prostitution cease? 

5. Why will gambling lose its interest under Socialism ? 

6. What is the moral difference between betting on cards and bet- 
ting on the wheat market? 

7. What relation have the sports of to-day to the previous life of 
the race? 

8. Will prohibition be likely under Socialism? 

9. Why, if the saloon remains, will its character change? 

10. Under what conditions will vice remain under Socialism ? 

11. Why will The Traffic in Vice come to an end? 

12. Will total abstinence prevail?. 



CHAPTEE XLIII 

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIALISM 

781. Primitive Co-operation Not Charity.— The 
charity organizations and the poor laws belong exclu- 
silvely to the era of capitalism. By this it is not meant 
that before the development of capitalism there had 
been no provision made for the relief of the distressed* 
Nor is it true that the appearance of the charity organ- 
izations marks the beginning in our human nature of 
a kindly regard one for another. While great cruelty 
was frequently practiced, and even cannibalism seems 
to have been universal at one stage of man's develop- 
ment, still during the entire period of savagery and 
until the closing years of barbarism, common owner- 
ship and co-operative industry, so far as industry ex- 
isted, sought to provide for the welfare of all; and 
hence, within the primitive tribal life there was no 
place either for the charity organizations or for any- 
thing which could in any way correspond to the poor 
laws now in force. 

782. Slaves and Serfs Not Victims of Charity.— 
When this primitive co-operative society had been de- 
stroyed by tribal wars and the successful warriors had 
been made the masters and the conquered tribes had 

566 



Chap.XLIII the charity organizations 567 

been enslaved, there was no place for relief funds 
among the masters themselves, and no master would 
have tolerated such an interference on behalf of his 
own slaves from the master of a neighboring slave pen. 
The poor were slaves and, if relieved at all, except as 
they relieved each other, it was by those who were at 
the same time engaged as masters in wearing out their 
lives. 

The same thing was true when, in the growth of so- 
ciety, slavery was outgrown and serfdom had taken 
its place. If a lord had needed relief from a charity 
organization or a poor fund, he would have ceased to 
be a lord. If a serf needed relief, it would be provided, 
if at all, by his own lord, on whose land the serf was 
exhausting his life in enriching the very lord from 
whom he would seek relief. 

783. End of Personal Relations Between Masters 
and Servants. — It was necessary that a whole class 
should be developed among which the unfortunate 
would be found, and another class entirely distinct 
from the unfortunates, who were more fortunate than 
they, and who could be induced to contribute to the 
relief of those not of their own class. These character- 
istics of the society which produces charity organiza- 
tions and poor laws, it is necessary to bear in mind. 
So long as the unfortunate workers maintained per- 
sonal relations to those who had personally profited 
by their services the obligation remained upon the in- 
dividuals of the more fortunate people to directly re- 
lieve the distress of the less fortunate, who were indi- 
vidually and personally both the sources of the mas- 
ters ' wealth and the subjects of their care. But under 
the wage system the relations of personal dependence 
are not recognized. The man who hires labor, that is, 
buys labor, instead of buying the laborer, does not ad- 
mit any obligation as resting upon him to support his 



568 CURRENT PROBLEMS PabtV 

employes, further than by the payment ot wages. He 
buys his labor in the open labor market, and if he is 
interested in relieving the distressed, it is upon the 
ground that he is himself more fortunate, and that he 
ought to help the helpless, but not upon the ground 
that he is under any personal obligation to benefit 
those by whom he has himself been benefited. 

Under primitive industry, however, all were of the 
same class. There was no more fortunate class which 
could be induced to be, or to pretend to be, especially 
good to a whole class less fortunate than themselves. 
All were provided for in the regular organization of 
the tribal industry. Neither the poverty-stricken class 
nor the class of those who were rich and able to pat- 
ronize, and accustomed to patronizing those poverty- 
stricken, had any existence, and consequently the 
charity organization made up of the class of those 
unusually fortunate, to relieve the distress of those 
unusually unfortunate, could not exist. 

These classes did exist under slavery and serfdom, 
but the relations between the helpless and their mas- 
ters were direct and personal, and therefore the char- 
ity organizations and the poor laws as they exist now, 
could not then exist, and as a matter of fact did not 
exist. 

784. The Early Church and Mutual Aid Among the 
Slaves.— This statement is likely to be disputed on the 
ground that the Christian church was boundless in its 
charities, and from the very beginning of its history 
gave itself immediately and continuously to the relief 
of the distressed. This position is correct, but it in no 
way affects the truth of our position. The church was 
a church and not a charity organization. Long before 
the Christian church came into the Roman world, asso- 
ciations among the poor for their mutual relief, and 
especially in order to provide for the decent burial of 



Chap.XLIII the charity organizations 509 

slaves; had been in existence.^ It is not contended that 
there were no associations among the slaves or among 
the evicted and helpless masses which the creation of 
the great Eoman estate made of those who before 
had been landholders within the original territory of 
the Eoman tribes. These Eoman tribes had furnished 
the soldiers to conquer the rest of the world and had 
supported the establishment of the private ownership 
of the lands of the conquered tribes. At last, with the 
same measure with which they had measured unto 
others it was measured unto themselves. 

These ancient landholders, who for a long period 
held their lands within the original territory of the 
Eoman tribes, had produced their own living in much 
the same independent fashion as the American farmers 
did for two hundred years and until within the last 
half century. But at last all the territory adjoining the 
Mediterranean had been brought under the sway of the 
Eoman authority, and the military masters of the rest 
of the world at last absorbed the home territory and 
compelled the dispossessed at home to become as help- 
less as were those foreigners whom the soldiers, who 
were recruited from these same Eomans who were now 
themselves dispossessed, had forced into slavery. 

The slaves seem never to have utterly, lost the ideal 
of mutual interest and association for mutual benefit 
as did their masters. It is not only admitted that there 
were associations for mutual relief among the slaves 
and the helpless freedmen and the remnants of the an- 
cient farmers, but on the contrary, there is reason to 
believe that the spirit of co-operation and of mutual 
helpfulness which existed in savagery and in barbar- 
ism, was never at any time utterly destroyed by civih 
ization. The Eoman slave pen was always being re- 
filled with slaves, captured in the wars with the bar- 

1. Ward: Ancient Lowly, p. 97. 



570 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

barians. These slaves were always bringing witb tbem 
the instincts aad habits of primitive life. Spartacns 
was not the only slave to bring with him the memories 
of a ^^tender-hearted shepherd lad who never knew 
a harsher note than a shepherd 's flute. ' ' 

On the organization of the Christian church, it went 
directly into these voluntary associations, already in 
existence among the slaves, the freedmen, and the 
evicted, and continued to do, in the name of religion, 
that which had been done before for humanity's own 
sake, and probably never had ceased being done among 
the slaves from the time when mutual support was the 
universal custom of savagery and barbarism. 

The church for a long time found its adherents al- 
most entirely among the poor, and its organization of 
relief, instead of being like the donations of the mod- 
em charity organizations, was simply a survival of, or 
at least a reversion to, the spirit and disposition of 
mutual support which was everywhere characteristic 
of barbarism. 

785. Public Provision for Roman Citizens.— Again, 
it will be contended, that the provision for the populace 
of Eome, made from the public treasury, was a poor 
law actually in operation, and long before the days of 
modem capitalism. But the answer to this is that this 
relief was especially and only for the citizens of Eome.^ 
The whole people of the ancient civilizations were di- 
vided into two classes— soldiers and slaves. The re- 
lief distributed from the Eoman treasury was not for 
the slaves, but for the soldiers; that is, it was for the 
relief of that great body of people who were not bond- 
men, and from whose ranks, as has been said, the Eo- 
man armies were recruited- The public treasury from 
which they were fed was filled by the pillage of the 

2. Liddell: History of Rome, pp. 537-538; and Bliss: Gesta Christa, 
p. 98. 



CHAi'.XLIIl THE CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS 571 

very armies whose ranks depended upon these same 
citizens to keep them supplied with soldiers. 

It was in no sense a poor law, based upon a system 
of modern taxation, by which the class which has prop- 
erty is held to be bound to see that distress does not 
reach the starving point among those who are help- 
less and are of the class which is without property. 
Instead of the Eoman distribution of food being any- 
thing like the modern poor fund or the modem charity 
organization, the fact is that the senators and gen- 
erals obtained their living by pillaging the balance of 
the earth. Those of the Eoman populace who received 
public supplies, were in no proper sense the recipients 
of charity or of the poor master's allowance. They 
simply got the bad end of the bargain in the distribu- 
tion among the Eoman citizens of the pillage which the 
Eoman armies, recruited from their own class, had 
taken from the balance of the earth. The matter of sur- 
prise is not that they were given so much, but that they 
were contented with so little. They did not get bread 
alone. They were given the arena as well as the 
granaries, entertainment as well as food. The spec- 
tacular, public butchery of the strongest captives, as 
well as a dole from the products of the toil of those 
less strong, was freely given to the brutal crowd as 
their share of the spoils of war. If they had not been 
natural murderers themselves the pitiful butchery of 
the arena and the scant provision for their own sup- 
port would never have satisfied the Eoman populace. 
They were bribed into accepting the scant provisions 
which were furnished for their support with the abund- 
ant provision which was made for their entertainment 
by the helpless slaughter of the arena. 

The rise of modern capitalism and the coming in 
of the wage system, with the development of modem 
towns and the creation of the modern factory 



572 CURRENT PROBLEMS Part V 

system, was also tlie beginning of charity organ- 
izations. Before that, the guilds had provided for 
their unfortunate members and the church had pro- 
vided for the relief of all. The church had come to 
be the greatest landlord in Europe, and her establish- 
ments were not only the places of refuge for those 
broken in spirit, but places of relief for all men in 
distress. These great properties had been created not 
only or mainly by the gifts of those counted great, 
but by the direct industry of those who had given their 
very lives, not as members of one class condescending 
to patronize another, but in actual industry for the 
creation of wealth in order to provide an earthly refuge 
for all the wayfarers of mankind.^ 

787. Confiscation of Church Property.— Henry VIII 
confiscated the property of most of the guilds, of the 
churches and of nearly all the schools and colleges of 
England, and turned these properties over to the 
private possession and for the private use of his per- 
sonal favorites."^ This was done in violation of the 
fraternal spirit which existed in savagery and barbar- 
ism. This fraternal spirit had not been destroyed by 
the wars which annihilated the common ownership and 
co-operative industry of primitive life. When this 
spirit had departed from the masters, it still survived 
among the slaves, and when the Christian religion came 
to Eome bringing the message of good will, this fra- 
ternal spirit was already there relieving the distressed 
and burying the dead. When Henry VIII confiscated 
the property of the guilds and schools and churches, he 
took away from society the only working plant still in 

3. Uhlhorn: Christian Charity in the Ancient Church, pp. 246-273. 
"The Pope was the greatest capitalist of the Middle Ages. The 

British Parliament at one time declared the revenues derived from the 
people of that kingdom by the Pope to be five times as great as those 
obtained by the Crown." — Walker: Political Economy, p. 424. Note. 

4. Rogers: Six Centuries of Work and Wages, pp. 320-335, 346. 
418 and 550. 



I 



CHAP.XLlll THE CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS 573 

existence on wliicli all had claims, and left tlie help- 
less utterly without the means of relief. He dispos- 
sessed the only groups which still embodied the idea 
of brotherhood, and so compelled the helpless, among 
those who were dispossessed, to beg relief at the hands 
of the benefactors among the class of those who had 
dispossessed them. The old fraternalism of the church 
and guild was thus robbed of its estates in order to 
further enrich the new paternalism of the capitalist 
system. 

788. Beginning of the Poor Laws.— The distress be- 
came so great and the able-bodied beggar so. common 
and dangerous that something had to be done, and, in 
the reign of Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIH, 
were enacted the first of the poor laws.^ It was the 
avowed purpose of the law not to relieve the distressed, 
but to relieve society from the danger incident to such 
universal conditions of starvation among the helpless. 
It was distinctly reported by her special commissioners 
and the law was enacted on their recommendation that 
it could be so drawn as to attach such disgrace to the 
persons receiving relief that all self-respecting people, 
who ere peaceably inclined, would rather quietly 
starve to death than endure the disgrace of public re- 
lief.6 

789. Modem Charity— -Exchajiging Self -Respect for 
Brea^,— All the poor laws, enacted in all the coun- 
tries of Europe and America, have been modeled after 
this original statute. They are characterized by the 
same spirit.*^ The charity organizations are not now so 
much concerned with the relief of the helpless as with 

5. Efforts to deal with this question were made during the brief 
reign of her half brother, Edward, but the first settled policy on the 
question was established under Elizabeth. See Rogers' Work and Wages, 
Chap. XV., also Henderson's Dependent, Defective and Delinquent 
Classes, p. 41. 

6. Walker: Political Economy, pp. 417-424. 

7. Henderson: Dependent, Defective and Delinquent Classes, p. 41. 



574 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

protecting the well-to-do from imposition on the part 
of those who claim they are in distress.^ The church has 
become the defender and the active promoter of these 
charity organizations. But the organizations are en- 
tirely without the fraternal spirit of the ancient church. 
The foundation, on which could be established any 
mutual feeling, is entirely wanting. The contributors 
do not give, in order to establish associations or insti- 
tutions from which they, in common with all others, 
may expect relief. The millionaire's donation to the 
slum district soup kitchen is given without any expec- 
tation of ever getting a dinner there himself. 

Nothing emphasizes the class lines, nothing corrupts 
the spirit and disposition of the fortunate, nothing 
humiliates and disgraces, while it emphasizes the posi- 
tion of dependence of those who are helpless, so much 
as the charity organizations. If any relief is given, it 
is under such conditions that whatever traits of manli- 
ness may still belong to the unfortunate, there is en- 
forced a clear exchange of self-respect for bread. 

790. Hospitals and Asylums.— Public hospitals, 
asylums for the insane and blind, and homes for the 
aged, so far as they are able to embody in actual work 
the purpose for which they exist, are not instances of 
charity organizations, but they are imperfect expres- 
sions of the fraternal spirit of mankind. So far as they 
fail, they do so because of the interference and corrup- 
tion of capitalism. 

791. The Poor-House.— But under the poor laws 
and the poor-houses, little children and worn-out 
wrecks of long years of exposure and distress, together 
with the wasted lives of dissipation, the woman who 
has worked and waited through her years, and the 

8. Notice how the whole body of their regulations are not drawn 
so much to make sure that there shall be no suffering as to insure that 
the unworthy beggar shall not be fed. 



Chap.XLIII the charity organizations 575 

woman who has wasted her vitality in wroii^ doing, 
all are hnddled together, despised and neglected^ and 
kept alive more for the benefit of the poor-house con- 
tractors than for the relief of those who are helpless. 

It is not meant to say that it is the general wish of 
society that these matters should be managed in this 
manner. On the contrary, it is believed that in the 
management of both the charity organizations and the 
poor laws, the general public is continuously betrayed. 
The general public intends relief. This intention of the 
public is born out of its fraternal spirit, but under the 
capitalistic management of affairs, this fraternal spirit 
of society is able to reach the helpless with the relief it 
offers only when its relief has been so mixed with bit- 
terness that even the tender mercies of capitalism are 
full of cruelty. 

792. Socialism and the Helpless.— The defender of 
capitalism is heard frequently to contend that Social- 
ism will make paupers or public dependents out of all 
the people, or else Socialism must leave the crippled 
and helpless without the means of life, because the total 
products are to go to the producers, and the helpless 
surely cannot be required to produce. 

Let it be remembered that, under capitalism, the 
workers must depend on the private owners of the 
means of producing the means of life for the opportun- 
ity to become producers at all. Socialism will remove 
this dependence of all upon a part and substitute in 
its stead the interdependence of all upon all. 

793. Mutual Dependence.— The dependence of the 
workers under capitalism is the dependence of acknowl- 
edged social inferiors on acknowledged social superi- 
ors, and the acknowledgment of this relation is a con- 
dition to which the workers must submit in order to 
become producers. The dependence of the workers 
under Socialism will be the dependence of equals on 



57G CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

each other. It will be democracy instead of servitude. 
The workers will depend on each other only for the op- 
portunity to become producers. Each worker will de- 
pend entirely upon himself as to the industry under- 
taken, and upon the will of all the workers, whose in- 
terests would be the same as his own, as to the condi- 
tions, hours and distribution of products, rather than 
as now, upon the will of a private employer whose in- 
terests are directly opposed to his own. Socialism will 
make a pauper of no one. It will make free, self-em- 
ploying, self-governing and self-respecting workers out 
of all the able-bodied full-grown members of society 
who choose to become such workers. Should any full- 
grown, able-bodied member of society choose to make 
a beggar out of himself, he will be obliged to beg from 
those who are themselves producers, every one of 
whom will know that any such beggar may live, if he 
will, on the same terms as the others from whom he 
begs. Not an encouraging outlook for able-bodied 
beggars. 

794. The Crippled, the Blind, the Aged.— But what 
of the crippled and the blind and the young and the 
aged? Those too young and those too old for labor 
will belong to the producers, not the dependents. The 
aged will have done their share, or, if not, it will be 
too late to demand a service which they cannot render. 
The young will be the producers of the future. The 
able-bodied workers will be bound to care for the aged 
in return for the care which those now aged provided 
for the able-bodied when they themselves were chil- 
dren, and the able-bodied will be justly required to care 
for the young in anticipation of the care which the 
young, when full grown, will provide for these workers 
when they themselves shall join the ranks of those be- 
yond the years when productive service may reason- 
ably be required. In these cases, the workers are re- 



Chap.XLIII the CHAHITY OHGANI^AtlOl^S 577 

ceiving the full products of their toil. A part falls to 
them in childhood, a part in old age, the larger share 
in life's full tide of strength and joy but in no case 
does one become the personal or social dependent of 
any other. To be sure the generations share in each 
other's products, but it is the mutual dependence of 
equals, and that under necessary natural relations, not 
the arbitrary dependence of those socially inferior on 
those socially their superiors. 

And now as to the blind and the crippled and those 
in general who are from birth physically or mentally 
defective. These are heirs to the world's natural re- 
sources and to all the achievements of the past, along 
with the rest of all mankind. The production of the 
larger share of the wealth of today is possible because 
of the invention, organization and industry of the past. 
These defectives are the joint heirs with all others to 
all natural resources and to all these achievements of 
the past. Unfortunately they are heirs to portions of 
the life of the past which others have escaped. The 
past has given to them the same claim to all the wealth 
which the past has given to all others in society, but 
the past has not given to them the strength to make 
Tise of this inheritance. And why not? Certainly not 
because of any fault of those who came into the world 
blind, or crippled, or diseased or helpless for any 
cause.^ 

795. Victims of Social Neglect.— The victim of dis- 

9. "Kjiowledge teaclies a community to breed better children, to 
bring tbem up better, to employ them better, to encourage them to be- 
have better, and work better, and play better, and in their turn breed 
children who shall have better chances than themselves — not necessarily 
better chances to grow rich or to become idle, but better chances to be- 
come honorable, wise, strong-bodied and strong-brained able men and 
women." — Beard: Industrial Revolution, Introduction (Powell), p. 8. 

"Socialism is a structure of society which takes in all; it leaves no 
residuum, no 'submerged tenth/ This all inclusiveness of Socialism ap- 
peals strongly to those who have been discouraged by the patchwork 
and piecemeal character of other social reforms. Take 'trades unionism,' 
for example : It has benefited great masses of men, but it always leaves 



578 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

abling misfortune is also usually the victim of social 
neglect. Unguarded machinery, unsafe bridges, un- 
sanitary conditions, child labor, overwork, improper 
food, unchecked contagion— these are the social forces 
with which society is creating the helpless. For, whose 
fault, then, is this misfortune of birth or accident ! Has 
it not befallen the helpless because of conditions for 
which society, its usages, its wrongs, its vices, its rob- 
beries, its neglects are more largely responsible than 
all other possible causes ! It was the wrongs of society 
which blinded the eyes, misformed the bodies, blighted 
the intelligence of those bom to helpless lives. It was 
the wrongs of society which caused the strong bodies of 
the workers ' ^ to be broken on the wheels ' ' of industry. 

It is not a question as to what these defectives can 
produce. Society has produced them, and society has 
done its work so badly that she owes to her helpless a 
debt which she can never pay. 

The most society can do, and it is her great misfor- 
tune that she cannot do more, is to lead those who are 
blind, to care for those who are helpless, not as an act 
of charity, not because of poor laws, not to the discredit 
of those who are helpless, but as an effort, so far as 
possible, to ^*make up" for the wrongs which in malice 



behind a wretched class of unorganized wage earners ; and even should 
it obtain its impossible ideal of complete organization of wage earners, 
it would still leave behind the most wretched of all — the dependent and 
delinquent classes. Take charity organization in all its various forms: 
It endeavors to administer to the dependent classes, taking them one 
by one; but it leaves unreached a disheartening number of needy and 
worthy cases. In fact, those whom one would like to help are precisely 
the most generally passed over by charity organizations. The same 
holds true with respect to all private efforts to aid individual cases. 
Private effort to reach the needy, one by one, so resembles pouring 
water into a sieve that many turn from it in despair. Socialism follows 
the method of Aristotle, and proceeds from the whole to the part. Its 
very structure is such that none are left out, but ample room is found 
for the cripple as well as the athlete, for the weak and feeble as well 
as for the strong and powerful." — Ely: Socialism and Social Reform^ 
pp. 114-115. * 



Chap.XLIII the charity OUGANIZATIONS 579 

or in ignorance have been committed at the hands of, or 
with the consent of society itself. 

796. Charity the Shameless Compromise of a Hope- 
less Bankrupt.— In the presence of these helpless peo- 
ple society is a hopeless bankrupt. When she has done 
her utmost for their protection and their relief she has 
not settled their account. Society, the bankrupt debtor, 
has given bread to the helpless creditor where life has 
been denied. Society, the bankrupt debtor, has given a 
guide to lead the blind for the clear vision which the 
helpless creditor has lost. Society, the bankrupt debtor, 
has provided food and drink to the body of the stunted 
mind, but vision, and strength, and gladness, and the 
matchless power to know and to understand— these 
society has taken away, and these she can never restore. 
Away with the outrage of disgrace for the helpless. 
The disgrace belongs to society. More than society can 
ever pay belongs to the helpless. But do not the prod- 
ucts belong to the producers? These helpless people 
cannot produce. These helpless people are social prod- 
ucts, the products of the social producers. Society must 
learn to change the conditions which make her the 
producer of these defectives. But until she does she 
must care for her own.^^ 

10. "No less certain is it that the giant growth of pauperism in 
these latter daj^s is largely due to the iniquitous individualism which, 
under the specious formulas of 'freedom of contract/ and 'the course of 
trade/ has withheld from the laborer, skilled and unskilled, his fair 
share of the fruits of his labor. The laborer has sunk into a pauper, 
the pauper into a vagrant, a loafer, a confirmed offender, and the class 
of habitual criminals has been formed as an element of modern society. 
The law of human progress is : 

" 'Move upward, working out the beast, 
And let the ape and tiger die/ 

"But these unfortunates have retrogressed; they have moved down- 
ward, working out the man; and their faces have, more or less, com- 
pletely lost the human expression. Their lineaments irresistibly remind 
us of the wild animals, to whose level they have well nigh sunk — the 
wolf, the jackal, the panther, the hyena. And these degraded beings 
increase and multiply, giving the world a more vitiated progeny — chil- 
dren born with special pre-disposition for crime.*' — ^Lilly: First Prin- 
ciples in Politics, pp. 304-305. 



580 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

797. Tomorrow All Are Helpless.— In all this, it 
must be borne in mind that under Socialism no one will 
be making charitable or beneficent arrangements for 
others. All are together providing for themselves. To- 
morrow one 's strength must fail. Today, in helping to 
determine the lot of the helpless, one is fixing his own 
condition for the morrow, for tomorrow all are helpless. 

798. Mutual Aid Among the Poor.— But the charity 
organizations and the poor laws are not the only efforts 
to relieve distress. Those who are poor are continu- 
ously caring for each other, not only in benefit associa- 
tions and in the fraternal organizations, but they are 
continuously relieving each other when out of employ- 
ment, in sickness and when suffering from accident, or 
misfortune of any sort. The gifts to the poor by those 
who are rich, through the charity organizations, are a 
mere bagatelle as compared to the relief which the poor 
are all the time providing for each other. There is 
nothing more discreditable to our human nature than 
the charity organizations and the spirit and method of 
the administration of the poor laws. There is nothing 
more creditable to our human nature than the daily 
self-denial of those who are poor, in their relief of each 
other in distress. The millionaire, in times of great 
public distress, contributes from his abundance to a 
soup kitchen and helps to keep alive the unemployed 
with soup for food and the stone floor of some public 
building for a bed; but the poor open their doors to 
each other, ^^ double up^' within their already over- 
crowded quarters and share together the last crust in 
their scanty larder. There is never a call for relief but 
that the poor respond; there is never an opportunity 
for the children from the families of the poor to give 
for the relief of others, but that the response is instant, 
large-hearted and frequently pathetic in the splendor 
of its natural tenderness. Public school teachers have 



Chap. XLIII THE CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS 681 

sometimes joined with the children in providing 
Thanksgiving dinners for those who were unable to 
provide them for themselves; but in such cases it has 
not been infrequent that those who brought the most 
bountiful gifts were the very children who should them- 
selves have been the ones to receive rather than to give. 

799. Fraternity.— The fraternal spirit, so manifest 
in the life of childhood, so persistent in the lives of the 
poor, so foreign to the life of capitalism, is an inherit- 
ance of our race from the long centuries of co-opera- 
tive industry and common ownership within the tribal 
organizations of primitive life. 

800. Loss of the Fraternal Spirit.— It is a curious 
thing that all races ha^e traditions of a previous golden 
age. It is a curious fact that as new tribes have been 
discovered, and the knowledge of the nature of their in- 
stitutions and usages has been added to the body of 
our knowledge of the race, with great frequency these 
new tribes have been found in a condition of seeming 
degeneracy from a previous higher life.^^ They have 
possessed evidences of having been in possession of 
institutions more advanced than they were found to 
possess at the time of their discovery. 

Darwin calls attention even to certain vicious usages 
found among certain classes of human beings, which 
the lower animals have nowhere been found to prac- 
tice.i2 

It is a curious fact that every effort of far-reaching 
importance for the improvement of the political eco- 
nomic conditions of the world has always, at the start, 
resulted in making bad matters worse. It is impossi- 
ble to resist the conviction that, while civilization has 
brought to our race a sense of its solidarity a sense of 
world life and of world power, has wrought out great 

11. Carpenter: Civilization, Its Cause and Cure, p. 11. 

12. Darwin: Descent of Man, p. 62. 



582 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

inventions, is bringing all lands under a single world- 
wide social organization, has multiplied many times 
the conveniences and comforts which it is possible for 
the race to possess— yet there seems to have been, on 
account of its coming, a distinct loss in the spirit of 
fraternal relations among the people. Instead of the 
mutual interdependence within the tribes, the bitter 
condescension of the charity organizations and the 
stolid cruelty of the poor laws have been thrust upon us. 
801. The Days of Trial.— But men were never really 
more degenerate than beasts. The golden age is not in 
the past; rather it is in the future. This seeming loss 
of the fraternal spirit is seeming only, and is not real. 
It sleeps, but it is not dead. It sliould be borne in mind 
that whenever institutions or habits among tribes of 
men have been long established and the accustomed 
wants are regularly supplied, under such conditions 
men are able to act deliberately, and so act their best. 
Under such circumstances it is at least possible that 
they shall consciously strive for improvement, for the 
correction of those things which are sources of trouble, 
and the cultivation of those things which have been 
found to be sources of delight. But when new condi- 
tions arise where men are thrown into strife, where 
new and strange methods of doing things have been 
adopted and are poorly understood, then in their blun- 
dering use of these things they frequently bring dis- 
aster rather than blessing. A sense of confusion takes 
the place of a sense of security. Men are thrown into 
despair, and in the midst of their disappointment and 
perplexity they act more from desperation than from 
deliberation. They cannot act out the best that is in 
them even if they would. Under settled conditions the 
best there is in man at least has an opportunity to come 
into the foreground and make itself seen and heard; 
but in such a crisis, all the fierceness, all the brutality, 



Chap. XLIII THE CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS 583 

all the cruelty tliat is in man's nature so comes to the 
foreground that neither culture nor conscience can con- 
trol. They are thrust into the background. They seem 
not to exist because in the midst of the brutal warfare 
they are neither seen nor heard. The story of civiliza- 
tion records many such scenes, many such periods of 
disorder when men have acted as nothing less than 
demons, and of other periods of peaceful growth where- 
in men have acted in the fullness of a worthy manhood. 
But civilization has never at any time been able to 
so establish conditions of security and of peaceful 
growth, with such provisions for the general welfare, 
that our human nature has been able to bring itself to 
the full fruition of the good which is really in the heart 
of man. 

802. Provoking Evil.— Modem capitalism by its 
private monopoly of all that nature has given and of 
all that man has achieved, has introduced such a con- 
dition as to repeat for most men the old story of the 
outcast whose *^hand was against every man and every 
man's hand was against him," and in this strife each 
hour reveals the more of demon and the less of man. 

803. 'Tailing Upward.''— But this is only in the 
seeming. Capitalism must ripen into Socialism. Then 
it will be found that ^^man has not fallen except as he 
has fallen upward." Under Socialism, security and 
comfort will be within the reach of all. Once again, 
the highest choice will be possible. Once again, man 
may act with deliberation, and the voice of the best 
that is in him will be heard again. It will sing a glad- 
der song, and reveal a nobler spirit than has yet been 
known among mankind. Desperation will give way to 
deliberation, the ferocity of our brute inheritance will 
yield to the fraternity which will in part outlive, and 
in part be evolved from the very confusion which has 



584 CURRENT PROBLEMS PartV 

been hiding from ns the highest qualities of onr own 
nature. 

Charity organizations and poor laws will then have 
no existence. The distress of the wretched will furnish 
no share of the entertainment of the rich and idle, and 
the misfortune of helplessness will never again be 
branded with disgrace. 

804. Summary.— 1. Charity organizations and poor 
laws had no existence in primitive society. 

2. Under slavery and serfdom, the masters and 
lords, who wore out the lives of the workers, in enrich- 
ing themselves, provided for the helpless among the 
slaves and serfs so far as they were provided for. 

3. Under capitalism, the employers sustain no per- 
sonal relations to the helpless among the working class. 
The employers wear out the lives of those who are 
strong in enriching themselves and throw upon society 
the responsibility of providing for the helpless among 
those who toil, hence the charity organizations and the 
poor laws. 

4. Under Socialism, the workers will be their own 
employers, will have for themselves the total product 
of their labor and will directly provide, on the Sasis 
of equality with themselves, for all the helpless among 
them. 

5. Under Socialism, the relations of master and 
slave, of lord and serf, of employer and hired laborer, 
of the giver of charity and the dependent, will all and 
utterly disappear, and the relation of brotherhood will 
cover all the earth and will include all mankind. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. Why were there neither charity organizations nor poor laws 
under barbarism, under slavery and under serfdom? 

2. Point out the class lines in the beginning of the charity or- 
ganizations. 

3. How are the personal relations of members of the master class 
to the members of the serving class, under the wage system, different 
from the same relations under slavery and serfdom? 



CsAP.XLIII THE CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS 585 

4. How was tlie mutual aid of the early Christian church different 
from the relief offered by the modern charity organizations ? 

5. Why ought not the ancient church and the old trade guilds and 
the earlier associations of slaves, to be counted charity organizations? 

6. Give a reason for thinking that tne mutual associations of the 
slaves were a survival from the co-operative society of primitive life. 

7. Was the public distribution of grain or bread among the citizens 
of Rome an instance of an ancient poor law? How did it differ from a 
modem poor law? 

8. What provision was made for the unfortunate prior to the time 
of Henry VIII? 

9. What became of the property of the chiirch under Henry VIII, 
and his successors ? 

10. What was the occasion for the first poor laws? What was the 
motive for their enactment? 

11. What was the purpose of the poor law which became the model 
for all the rest enacted since then? 

12. How do the charity organizations embitter the class relations? 

13. Give the general spirit and character of the usual poor house. 

14. How, and to what extent and with what spirit, do the poor 
relieve each other? 

15. Contrast the charities of a millionaire with those of the school 
children. 

16. Whence comes this fraternal spirit of man? 

17. Explain the frequent seeming loss of character with the ad- 
vance of the race life. 

18. Why will poor laws and charity organizations cease with the 
coming 9f Socialism? 



PART VI 

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AND PROPOGANDA 



CHAPTEE XLIV 

THE NATURE OF A POLITICAL PARTY**^ 

805. A Means of Escaping War.— Political parties 
have arisen in the modem political world as the means 
of peaceably representing conflicting economic interests 
in the councils of the state. Political parties are sub- 
stitutes for, or are the survivals of, the old military 
organizations by which conflicting economic interests 
formerly settled their disputes. Public action through 
political parties is the last remaining alternative, or 
form and means of contest, next preceding civil war. 
Sir Henry Maine says : ' ' Man has never been so fero- 
cious or so stupid as to submit to such an evil as war 
without some kind of effort to prevent it." The last 
and most effective of all such peace measures is the de- 
vice of the elective franchise, and the political party 
organized to make effective the use of the elective 
franchise. 

806. The Last Alternative.— Whenever the defeated 
party, in an election refuses to submit to the result of 
the election, there remains no other alternative than a 

586 



Chap.XLIV. a political party 587 

reversion to tlie old and only remaining arbiter, that 
is, a resort to arms.^ 

807. The Record.— A brief sketch of the political 
parties of this country will both illustrate and estab- 
lish the correctness of this position. 

808. The Revolutionary Parties.— The earliest 
American political parties came into existence as a 
result of the disputes which led to the Eevolutionary 
"War. Those who defended the mother country were 
called Tories; those who defended the position which 
finally prevailed in America were called Wliigs. They 
could not come to an understanding, and those who 
still stood for the mother country were obliged either 
to surrender to the dominant American party or join 
the forces of the English army. There was no other 
alternative— it was submit or fight. 

809. The Parties of the Constitution.— When the 
war was over new questions of administration arose. 
Some of the colonies, now independent of the mother 
country, maintained a protective tariff and others free 
trade. There was no central body with authority to act 
for all of these new loosely confederated states. Mary- 
land maintained free trade, and Virginia a protective 
tariff. Imports were landed on the Maryland shore 
and taken across the Potomac for consumption in Vir- 
ginia in violation of the laws of that state. The same 
controversy was carried on between New Jersey and 
New York; betwen Ehode Island and the other New 
England states. A series of conferences representing 
the conflicting commercial interests led finally to the 

1. "Party may lead to civil strife and revolution, but it is far from 
aiming at violence in its first formation. The violence is the result of 
opposition." — ^Woolsey: Political Science, Vol. II., p. 543. 

"Political power is the ability of certain members of a society 
physically to force the remaining members to do their will. Govern- 
ment is the sum of the force usable by the rulers and applied to the gov- 
erned by the instrument of force created for that purpose." — ^Lane : The 
Level of Social Motion, p. 340. 



588 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

holding of the constitutional convention for the pur- 
pose of revising the Articles of Confederation so as to 
enable a central government to deal with this and other 
commercial questions. The convention immediately 
proceeded to draft a new constitution. This constilni- 
tion was submitted to the various states for ratification, 
and after a prolonged and bitter campaign it was final- 
ly adopted. Among its opponents were Patrick Henry, 
John Hancock, Samuel Adams and others of the most 
active and well-known supporters of the Eevolutionary 
War, but when the general decision of the states was 
finally made in behalf of the new constitution, there 
remained nothing for the opposition within the various 
states to do but to surrender to this public will or rebel. 
They chose to surrender. 

810. Washington's Cabinet.— In the organization of 
Washington's cabinet, representative men from both 
parties which had been developed in the contest regard- 
ing the constitution, were made members of the cab- 
inet. Hamilton and Knox, representing those favor- 
able to the constitution, and Jefferson and Randolph, 
representing the opposition. During Washington's ad- 
ministration, questions of serious dispute were largely 
fought out in the cabinet meetings, but during the ad- 
ministration of John Adams, the party which had 
favored the constituion and was now known as the 
Federalist party, so offended the general public, par- 
ticularly in what was known as the Alien and Sedition 
Laws, that the disputes extended beyond the cabinet, 
beyond the Senate, beyond Congress. Mr. Jefferson 
became the leader of the party of opposition. He called 
his new party the Republican party, and became its 
successful candidate for the presidency. The party 
which had adopted the constitution, which had con- 
ducted the government under the administrations of 
Washington and Adams, and whose tendency was 



Chap. XLIV. A POLITICAL PARTY 589 

claimed to be towards a monarchy, wliicli held Mr. Jef- 
ferson to be both dangerous and unwise as a public 
man, was nevertheless obliged to submit or resort to 
arms. 

811. End of the Federalists,— The new Eepublican 
party became the war party in dealing with the com- 
mercial questions which led to the Second War with 
England. The Federalist party was opposed to the 
war, its most active representatives even going so far 
as to take steps in the famous Hartford Convention 
looking to the secession of the New England states, 
and the return of their allegiance to the mother coun- 
try. Their purposes were made known to the admin- 
istration by John Quincy Adams, on account of which 
action he withdrew from the Federalist party and be- 
came a Jeffersonian Eepublican. When the Second 
War with England was over, the Federalist party had 
become so discredited that it practically ceased to exist, 
and Monroe became the President in the succeeding 
election as the choice of all parties. For many years 
American politics dealt with no such serious problems 
as to force a reorganization along the lines of con- 
flicting economic interests. Politics were personal pol- 
itics, and American statesmen were contending with 
each other over offices rather than principles. 

812. Whigs and Democrats.— Finally the struggle 
between President Jackson and the National Bank led 
the general public to take sides on a direct economic 
question which again divided the country, with Mr. 
Jackson and Mr. Clay each contending that he him- 
self was the real successor of Jefferson and the only 
real Eepublican; but in order to determine which kind 
of a Eepublican each man was, the Jackson Eepubli- 
cans called themselves Democratic Eepublicans, and 
the Clay Eepublicans called themselves Whig Eepub- 
li^cans, so th^t with the dropping of the name Re;^tib- 



590 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part^ 

lican, the Democratie and Whig parties came into ex- 
istence. 

Commercial interests of the very greatest importance 
were involved in this second election of Mr. Jackson. 
The war at the ballot box has been rarely equaled 
for the determination and bitterness with which the 
campaign was carried on. Mr. Clay was defeated; the 
National Bank was closed out; interests involving the 
fortunes of multitudes of Americans were set aside. 
There was no means by which the conflict could be car- 
ried further. The issue had been made at the ballot 
box; the defeated party was obliged to surrender. 
There remained no other means of carrying on the war- 
fare except to resort to arms. 

813. Back Sighted.— And then again, for many 
years these parties survived, not because of new ques- 
tions which divided them, but because of the antagon- 
isms which had been created in the Jackson and Clay 
campaigns. For a quarter of a century no great ques- 
tion arose, involving a reorganization of political par- 
ties along the lines of hotly disputed economic ques- 
tions. While there were serious disputes on the ques- 
tions which led to the Mexican War, the most influ- 
ential partisans of both parties claimed to be the spe- 
cial champions of the American side in the contro- 
versy, and political parties were not reorganized on 
that account. 

814. The Northwest Territory.— But the disposition 
of the Northwestern Territory presented to the Amer- 
ican government the greatest economic question with 
which it had been obliged to deal since its organiza- 
tion. 

New England land speculators were buying up the 
western land and holding it out of use for speculative 
purposes; southern slave owners were anxious to oc- 
cupy the western lands and to organize this territory 



Chap.XLIV. a political party 591 

into great slave plantations; while the frpntiersmen, 
themselves occupying portions of this territory, were 
equally opposed to the speculators from the East and 
the plantation owners from the South. They desired 
these wild lands to be held for actual settlement. They 
wished this territory to be held free for the use of 
their own sons on some plan which would make their 
children neither the victims of the speculators from the 
East nor competitors with slave labor from the South. 
They asked for the homestead law as against the specu- 
lator and for free soil as against slave labor. 

815. Land Speculators and Plantation Owners.— 
The Whig party was controlled by speculators in the 
East and by plantation owners in the South; the Demo- 
cratic party was controlled by speculators in the East 
and by plantation owners in the South. Both parties 
were controlled in the Northwest by those opposed 
alike to the land grabber and the plantation owner. It 
was impossible for either of the great parties to repre- 
sent the Northwest and at the same time keep the peace 
with its southern and eastern constituencies. The 
Whig party was broken into factions and the North- 
west became the leader of that faction of Whigs which, 
reinforced by Northwestern Democrats, finally became 
the Eepublican party. The Democratic party was also 
broken into factions, and the Northwest became the 
leader of that faction of the Democratic party which, 
under the leadership of Mr. Douglas, joined at last 
with the Northwestern Whigs ostensibly in the defense 
of the American Union, but really in behalf of the eco- 
nomic interests of the Northwestern states. 

816. Surrender or Fight.— In the election of 1860, 
there were four candidates : Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Doug- 
las both standing for the freedom of the Northwestern 
Territory, but with different programs for securing 
that end; Breckenridge and Bell, both standing for 



592 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA PabtVI 

maintaining and protecting the western interests of the 
eastern speculators and the southern plantation own- 
ers. Mr. Lincoln was elected; all other parties were 
then obliged to surrender the points of controversy and 
to consent to the freedom of the Northwest Territory 
both from eastern speculators and southern plantation 
owners or rebel. The plantation owners chose to rebel. 
There remained no other possible alternative. They 
were in a position where it was submit or fight, and 
they chose to fight. The speculators chose to surrender. 
The speculators surrendered at the beginning of the 
Civil War, because they were obliged to fight or sur- 
render, and for the further reason that the Civil War 
itself furnished a greater opportunity for immediate 
speculative transaction^ than had before been offered 
by the western lands. The scheme of railway land 
grants was another means by which the speculators 
were able still to largely monopolize the western land 
in spite of the homestead act, after having taken sides, 
early in the war, with the Northwest as against the 
plantation owners of the South. 

The plantation owners surrendered at the close of the 
war because, having chosen to fight, they had exhaust- 
ed to the utmost the military resources at their dis- 
posal. 

817. Voting and Pighting.^In all these instances, 
it is seen that the party organization is always a pos- 
sible military organization. Out-voting has always 
been a preliminary to out-fighting, should the defeated 
party refuse to abide by the result of a general election. 
It is, moreover, seen that in every instance the real 
causes of all these political controversies have always 
been conflicting economic interests. Always the liberty 
and the welfare of the people have been the rallying 
cries of partisan warfare. 

818. Ordinary Issues.— But thete are many public 



Chap. XLIV A POLITICAL PARTY 593 

questions wliicli are widely discussed and settled by 
common consent without forcing a reorganization of 
political parties, and with no threat of war as a pos- 
sible result of defeat at the ballot box. It will be found 
on examining these cases that in not a single instance, 
when questions of public controversy have been so ad- 
justed, were there any interests involved of such a seri- 
ous nature that those interested on either side were 
ready to fight rather than surrender. There are no 
exceptions. Civil war, in all lands and in all times, 
since organized opposition to the policy of the admin- 
istration has been tolerated within the state— civil war 
has always been preceded by the organization or re-or- 
ganization of political parties along the line of the eco- 
nomic interests in conflict within the state. Foreign 
wars are caused by conflicting economic interests be- 
tween the warring nations. It is always taxes, or mar- 
kets, or tributes, or lands ; always a war for economic 
advantage. 

819. The Referendum.— The services which the in- 
itiative and referendum can render are made most evi- 
dent in this connection. It is claimed by some of the 
friends of the measure that it would abolish party rule, 
that the people then, by direct vote, would administer 
their affairs regardless of party lines. It is no doubt 
true that very many questions could and would be thus 
settled. Many matters, for example, which, owing to 
partisan interests, or owing to the pressure of other 
questions, are now left in neglect, could then be speed- 
ily given a hearing and justly settled in accordance 
with the real public will. 

820. Exceeding the Power of the Referendum.— But 
no question which has ever led to war because of the 
refusal of the minority to obey the majority vote could 
have been settled in any such way. No question with 
regard to which the main controversy will come in 



594 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

enforcing the decision rather than in securing the ma- 
jority in its favor, can ever be settled by a referendum. 
Majorities on questions of that sort are of no avail 
unless they are so organized as to directly administer 
the proposed measures, and if necessary to forcibly 
compel the submission of rebellious minorities. The 
eiTort to carry any measure so radical and so far-reach- 
ing as the measures which the Socialists propose, by 
a referendum vote, is like an effort to compel the obe- 
dience of an armed and organized army by simply de- 
claring the wishes of an unarmed and unorganized 
mob. 

821. No Political Parties— Mere Appetites for Of- 
fice. -^It will be seen from the above that Burke's re- 
mark concerning a political party, made more than a 
hundred yars ago, will still hold. He said: *^ A political 
party is a body of men united for promoting, by their 
joint endeavors, the national interest upon some partic- 
ular principle in which they are all agreed.'' 

If this is correct, and if the above observations are 
substantially true, it is easily seen that the Democratic 
and Eepublican parties in the United States are not 
now political parties as re- pr to each other. The same 
economic interests control the country in the event of 
the victory of either of them. Just as succeeding the 
Second War with England, political parties degener- 
ated to a personal squabble for place and power; just 
as after the great contest over the national bank, polit- 
ical parties became again mere organized squabbles for 
place and power, so now, since the settlement of the 
questions growing out of the Civil War, political par- 
ties in America have again become mere organized 
squabbles for place and power. 

Both the Eepublican and Democratic parties are the 
survivals of old controversies between them, and are 
not now the representatives in politics of conflicting 



Chap. XLIV A POLITICAL PARTY 595 

economic interests, so serious and so determined that 
nothing less than a resort to an organization or re- 
organization of party lines along the line of this eco- 
nomic controversy can settle the dispute; and, then, 
only by recognizing that it will be at last and finally 
necessary to surrender at the ballot box or resort to 
arms. No such victories have been won and no such 
surrenders have been made by either of these parties 
since the Civil War. 

822. There is a Real Question.— There are, however, 
such conflicting economic interests. They are the in- 
terests of the few who are masters in conflict with 
the interests of the many who are toilers. These con- 
flicting interests are speaking in the strikes, in the lock- 
outs, in the injunctions, and their voice is heard in the 
sharp crack of the rapid-firing gun by which the toiler 
is mercilessly driven back to his unwilling task. These 
interests will yet speak facing each other at the ballot 
box. But the Eepublican and Democratic parties are 
not on opposite sides of this economic war. Only the 
reorganization of political parties can make this eco- 
nomic controversy the occasion for a sharp and con- 
clusive struggle at the ballot box, in which struggle, 
determined and desperate opposing economic interests 
will first establish the public authority of one party or 
the other to act in these matters, with the distinct un- 
derstanding that the party beaten at the ballot box 
must surrender or fight. 

823. A Part of the Legal Machinery.— Until very 
recently political parties were purely voluntary organ- 
izations. They were not required to be organized un- 
der the constitutions of the various states, or of the 
federal government, nor were they regulated by the 
laws of state or nation. The abuser of party manage- 
ment, the organization of political rings and self-per- 
petuating political party machines became unendur- 



596 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

able, and the laws of most states have now established 
the political party as a regularly organized and legally 
constituted part of the public machinery of the state. 
The members of no political party can any longer con- 
struct their own machinery, or manage their own af- 
fairs entirely in their own way, and in defiance of the 
general public. No by-laws, charters, committees, con- 
ventions, clubs, memberships, discipline, or general 
party organization or management, are of any force in 
most states unless they are in compliance with the 
state laws covering the government of political parties 
in their purely party affairs. • 

824. The Primary and Election Laws.— The strug- 
gle for primary laws has been a struggle for enforcing 
the political right of the individual citizen to have 
voice in the management of the political party whose 
ticket he votes. It is a part of the movement for uni- 
versal suffrage. For one's citizenship cannot be com- 
plete unless he has a vote within the party and in the 
management of the party, whose ticket he votes, as 
well as a vote for the party when elections are held. 
It is evident that all efforts to limit the management 
of a political party to a restricted portion of those who 
vote the ticket, are in their essence a denial of the right 
of suffrage. They are in distrust of and an attempted 
thwarting of the popular will. The primary laws are 
simply an effort to establish the right of franchise in 
the government of parties, as well as in government by 
parties. 

825. National Parties Purely Voluntary.— In the 
national organization, no such legal control of political 
parties has yet been undertaken and national conven- 
tions and national committees may be elected, organ- 
ized and controlled in any way the political parties 
may themselves determine. 

But state political party organizations only are 



Ghap.XLIV a political party 597 

legally recognized within the states. They are the 
only parties legally understood to be in existence, and 
within the states, the state election and primary laws 
must be added to, and must in many particulars de- 
termine the nature of, party rules and regulations. 

826. New Parties— Petitions.— New political par- 
ties secure the right to vote in such states, not because 
of their party organizations, but because of petitions 
signed by a certain percentage of the citizens. Then 
the new party's candidates come under the laws gov- 
erning petitions, not parties. Whenever the new party 
is large enough to secure legal standing and may act 
as a party, then the control of the party management 
in most states falls, to a great extent, under the con- 
trol of the state primary laws. 

While these primary laws have undertaken to ex-- 
tend and protect the popular franchise, it should not 
be overlooked that they give to the party in power the 
means of seriously interfering with the organization 
or re-organization of other political parties. It is even 
possible, by such an abuse of the primary laws, to so 
embarrass a minority party, especially a new party, as 
to make its existence practically impossible. 

827. Disfranchising Minorities.— Parties in power 
must not forget that this may be carried to the point 
of practically disfranchising large numbers of people 
interested in measures not represented by existing par- 
ties, and so, by excluding them from the only peace- 
able means of being heard in the councils of state, in- 
cite to disturbance the very people who are seeking 
for a peaceful adjustment of conflicting interests. 

828. Summary.— 1. The political party is the last 
remaining alternative next preceding civil war. 

2. Political controversies of such a serious nature 
as to involve the re-organization of political parties are 
always economic controversies. 



598 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA PartVI 

3. Questions not so seriously disputed may be and 
ouglit to be settled by referendum without party repre 
sentation or support. 

4. The current political parties in this country ar€ 
the survivals of organizations created by questions al- 
ready settled. They are not the representatives of cur- 
rent clashing economic interests. 

5. The controlling power in both the Democratic 
and Eepublican parties is the economic interest of the 
masters— the toilers are unrepresented except by the 
Socialists. 

6. Political parties have no legal existence except 
under the state laws. The primary election laws are a 
part of the rules and regulations of all political parties. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. How is a political party related to war? 

2. Quote Sir Henry Maine'. 

3. Give an account of the American political parties, past and pres- 
ent, of their organization and their relation to economic controversies. 

4. Why may ordinary questions be settled by a referendum ? 

5. Why may not controversies of the most serious nature be so 
settled? 

6. Why are the Republican and Democratic parties not real politi- 
cal parties? 

7. How are both of them related to the most important current 
economic controversy ? 

8. What is the greatest political question of the present? 

9. In what way are political parties related to the state laws? 

10. How are new parties now enabled to enter the field? 

11. If new political parties are prevented from organizing, in what 
way must revolutionary measures again be fought out within the state ? 



CHAPTEE XLV 

THE SOCIALIST PARTY 

829. Early Organizations.— The earliest efforts at 
realizing the co-operative commonwealth, it has been 
seen in Chapter XIX, were attempts to organize co- 
operative colonies. When the scientific defense for the 
proposals of the Socialists finally made its appearance 
it was during the time when all Europe was engaged 
in a series of political revolutions.^ The earliest or- 
ganizations were necessarily more of an educational 
than a political nature, more for the purpose of mak- 
ing the ideas of the Socialists generally understood 
than for the purpose of directly organizing for the 
purpose of putting them into actual operation. The 
forms of organization were necessarily of the nature 
of clubs, purely voluntary, never with any legal stand- 
ing, and they frequently existed in spite of the direct 
prohibition of the public statutes. 

830. Half a Century Ago.— While scientific Social- 
ism and the organizations which have finally devel- 
oped into the Socialist political parties of Europe were 

1. A series of political revolutionary movements covered all Europe, 
culminating in the revolutions which sent to London as political refugees 
the authors of the Communist Manifesto. This was published in 1848. 
It was the first and still remains the most widely read of the standard 
international utterances of the scientific Socialists. 

699 



600 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

making their beginniiigs abroad, the people of the Unit- 
ed States were engaged in a series of political contro- 
versies leading to the Civil War, and then in a series 
of other controversies resulting from the Civil War. 
More than half a century ago Utopian Socialism had 
a strong following in the United States and not infre- 
quently these Utopian Socialists became active factors 
in the political activities of those days,^ 

831. In America.— But interests of this sort were 
unable to secure any hearing in the face of the great 
controversies leading to and resulting from the 
Civil War; and when the interests of the working peo- 
ple commenced again to manifest themselves in Amer- 
ican politics it was with relation to the questions di 
rectly involved in the financial policies of the govern- 
ment during and following the Civil War. The great 
preponderance of agricultural voters in this country 

2. Even the word "Socialism" is an American product and was 
first applied to the activities of the Utopian Socialists of this country. 
One of the political organizations in New York, which finally developed 
into .the Republican party, was in its earliest activities controlled by 
the Socialists. The Workingman's Party in New York in 1835, thirteen 
years before the writing of the "Communist Manifesto" declared for 
the following platform : 

*'I. The right of man to the soil: Vote yourself a farm. 

"II. Down with monopolies, especially the United States bank. 

"III. Freedom of the public lands. 

"IV. Homesteads made inalienable. 
\ "V. Abolition of all laws for the collection of debts. 

"VI. A general bankrupt law. 

*'VII. A lien of the laborer upon his own work for his wages. 

"VIII. Abolition of imprisonment for debt. 

"EK. Equal rights for women with men in all respects. 

"X. Abolition of chattel slavery and of wages slavery. 

*XI. Land limitation to one hundred and sixty acres — no person, 
after the passage of the law, to become possessed of more than that 
amount of land. But when a land monopolist died, his heirs were to 
take each his legal number of acres, and be compelled to sell the over- 
plus, using the proceeds as they pleased. 

"Xn. Mails, in the United States, to run on the Sabbath." 

They elected two members of the state legislature and turned the 
majority vote of New York to Andrew Jackson in the following presi- 
dential election. The Jackson newspapers published regularly during the 
campaign the above platform at the head of their editorial columns. 
(See Charles Sotheran: Horace Greeley and Other Pioneers of Ameri- 
can Socialism, pp. 83-87.) 



Chap. XLV THE SOCIALIST PARTY 601 

and their complete control of American politics for 
more than half of the lifetime of the republic has here- 
tofore given shape to the political activities of labor 
from the standpoint of the self-employed farmer seek- 
ing protection as a property owner, rather than from 
the standpoint of working men regardless of small 
properties. 

832. The Populists.— The revolutionary spirit whicli 
characterized the early Populist movement in the 
western states was, and was understood to be, by 
those most actively engaged in it, a struggle for the 
rights of *4abor as against capital." In the first na- 
tional convention held in Cincinnati, on May 19, 1891, 
the state of Kansas sent more than one-fourth of all 
the delegates assembled from all the states of the 
Union. Many of the most active workers in the Kan- 
sas delegation were avowed Socialists and did not hesi- 
tate in their public utterances then, nor have they at 
any time since, to declare for outright Socialism. More 
votes were polled for the Populist party in Kansas 
than in any other state, and while single taxers and 
others were active in the movement, the revolutionary 
spirit which demanded the rights of the toilers as 
against the exploiters was the most marked character- 
istic of the Populist campaign. The platform utter- 
ances were by no means Socialism nor even Socialistic. 
But while the labor declarations, which in other plat- 
forms were simply perfunctory utterances^ made with 
the hope of enlisting the support of wage workers, the 
platform utterances of the Populists in this respect 
are seen to have been expressive of a coming revolu- 
tion, when the sincerity of these utterances is remem- 
bered and their significance is understood.^ On their 

3. "The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up 
colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; 
and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger 
liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we 



602 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA PartV] 

lips the watchword of '^ Equal Eights to All and Spe- 
cial Privileges to None/' was both sincere and revo- 
lutionary. 

That the party was finally captured by the Demo- 
cratic politicians, and at last became reactionary in 
its general character, in no way affects the truth of 
the position that in its spirit and in its original pur- 
pose the Populist party was an expression of the same 
revolutionary tendencies in American society which, 
in the course of half a century of steady development, 
have grown at last into the political Socialist move- 
ment. It is admitted that the Populist literature was 
unscientific; that the Populist proposals were insuf- 
ficient; and it is remembered that the Populist party 
was utterly destroyed in the conflicts between the 
Democratic and Eepublican organizations ; and yet its 
career was an important incident in the evolution of 
the American Socialist movement. 

833. Imported Socialism.— The earliest political or- 
ganizations of scientific Socialists in this country were 
undertaken, not by native Americans, or as a re- 
sult of the political and economic evolution of this 
country, but by Socialists of foreign birth, who brought 
with them the philosophy and the organization result- 
ing from the forms of political life and the stage of the 
economic development of European countries. Social- 
ist meetings were held, and Socialist organizations ef- 
fected in which the business! was transacted in foreign 
tongues, and the opponents of Socialism created the 

breed the two great classes — tramps and millionaires. * * * A vast 
conspiracy against mankind has been organized on two continents, and 
it is rapidly taking possession of the world. If not met and overthrown 
at once it forebodes terrible social convulsions, the destruction of civili- 
zation, or the establishment of an absolute despotism. * * * Believing 
that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move 
forward until every wrong is remedied and equal rights and equal priv- 
ileges securely established for all the men and women of this country." 
From the National People's Party Platform, adopted at Omaha, Neb., 
July 4, 1892. 



Chap. XLV THE SOCIALIST PARTY 603 

very general impression tliat Socialism itself was a 
matter of foreign importation ; that the political insti- 
tutions and economic forces of America were neces- 
sarily of snch a character that Socialism was not only 
foreign, but could not possibly have a rational and 
vital existence on American soil. It was not until 
after the collapse of the Populist party, together with 
the recent and remarkable development of American 
industry, that the Socialist program, the Socialist pro- 
paganda, and the Socialist political party came to their 
day of opportunity in America. 

834. Inherent in American Life.— The economic 
evolution outlined by Karl Marx is now more advanced 
in America than anywhere else. The political revolu- 
tion which this economic development renders inevita- 
ble is at hand, in America, not because of imported 
agitators or translated Socialist propaganda docu- 
ments, as its opponents contend, or solely or mainly 
because of the active support of adopted citizens who 
brought their Socialism with them, but simply because 
it is the logical outcome of the local economic and po- 
litical situation. 

835. Economics and Politics.— Economic conditions 
have always determined political organizations and 
controversies. Either the economic conflict between 
the exploiters and the exploited must be speedily ad- 
justed or the Socialist party must grow into power 
and the co-operative commonwealth come into exist- 
ence. But this will not be because the Socialists are 
personally better or wiser men than others, not be- 
cause the Socialists are faultless. It will be in spite 
of their faults and because there is no other way of 
settling this economic controversy. The conflict is 
irrepressible. It must be fought to a finish. It can 
be fought to a finish nowhere else than in the field of 
politics. 



604 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

836. Only Two Sides.— There are only two sides to 
this conflict. Capitalism is on one side and Socialism 
on the other. If capitalism continues to control, then 
the working class must continue to exist under cap- 
italism because society cannot exist without the work- 
ers. So long as these classes exist with antagonistic 
economic interests, so long this economic conflict must 
last. But if Socialism prevails capitalism will cease 
to exist. Capitalists will cease to be capitalists and 
will become useful members of society. The conflict 
will be over because only one side to the struggle will 
have survived. Therefore, regardless of the goodness 
or wisdom of individual capitalists and of the baseness 
or folly of individual Socialists the conflict must last 
until Socialism is established.^ 

837. Economic Determinism and Politics.— The So- 
cialist party is being developed in America as ex- 
plained by the principles of economic determinism 
(Chapters n-in), and in accordance with the political 
institutions of America. That the Populist party has 
disappeared as a factor in American politics is of great 
advantage in the development of the Socialist move- 
ment. The sole party of opposition with any promise 
of strength in the contest with the Eepublican and 
Democratic parties is now the Socialist party. By wise 
councils and great activity, the Socialist party can and 
will hold this position. There is no other alternative. 
The economic enemies of the arrogance and the rob- 
beries inherent in capitalism can find standing room 
nowhere else because Socialism is the only possible 
working program for the working man's side of this 

4. "On the ground of the class struggle we are invincible; if we 
leave it we are lost, because we are no longer Socialists. The strength 
and power of Socialism rests in the fact that we are leading a class 
struggle; that the laboring class is exploited and oppressed by the 
capitalist class, and that within capitalist society effectual reforms, 
which will put an end to class government and class exploitation, are 
impossible." — Liebknecht: No Compromise, p. 56, 



Chap. XLV THS SOCIALIST PAHTY 605 

economic class struggle. The inadequate measures of 
the Populists, supported by an effort to organize a 
political party devoted to labor, but in the end con- 
trolled by the capitalists, have been proven futile. To 
capture either of the old parties and by any process 
whatsoever convert it into the political representative 
of the working class is and has been repeatedly proven 
to be impossible. The program of fusion between po- 
litical parties representing irreconcilable economic in- 
terests has been proven unwise, and the efforts to real- 
ize anything for the working class by such a program 
hopeless.^ 

838. The American Vanguard.— Socialist parties 
in other countries have attempted their work and 
grown to great strength in spite of many legal restric- 
tions and political disabilities which do not exist in 
this country. The elective franchise is more universal 
here than elsewhere, the right of free speech more care- 
fully guarded, the traditions and prejudices of Amer- 
ican political life and institutions are more on the side 
of freedom, more in behalf of equal opportunity, and 
the economic development more complete in America, 
and hence, the hour for the inauguration of the co- 
operative commonwealth nearer at hand in this than 
in any other country. 

839. Her Historical Trend Toward Socialism.— 
With the historical glorification of rebellion against 
parties in power ; with the example of party organiza- 
tion, or reorganization repeatedly undertaken and 
forced to successful issue by American statesmen, and 
those statesmen the most honored in American society ; 

5. "But when one political party proposes to fuse with another in 
open conflict with what it deems the ruling interest, in the nature of the 
case, it is, in effect, a proposition to abandon the occasion of its own 
existence for the sake of the temporary advantage of its candidates^ 
a proposition essentially and necessarily corrupt. The only honest thing 
for such a party to do is 'to go out of business.' " — ^Walter Thomas 
Mills: Science of Politics, published in 1887. 



606 ORGANIZATION AND PKOPAGANDA PabtVI 

with no hereditary royalty ; with no acknowledged aris- 
tocracy; with no special shielding of public authori- 
ties from the severest criticism;— together with all 
these there exists almost universal contempt for the 
policies, the committees and the programs of the old 
political parties, even by those who most regularly 
vote their tickets;— these are some of the favorable 
conditions under which the Socialists are making a 
beginning as a party in American politics. 

840. Partisan Pitfalls.— It must not be understood 
from the foregoing that there are no dangers in the 
way of the Socialist party. There are many and they 
are very serious. 

841. Fusion.— 1. The danger from fusion. 

The author of these pages has recently been engaged 
in a long correspondence with a gentleman whose con- 
victions are entirely those of the Socialist, but who is 
unable to persuade himself to join the Socialist party 
because of his experience in the Populist party and 
the destruction of that party through fusion. It is an 
easy thing to denounce fusion when there is no one 
with whom to fuse. If a labor union party should be 
organized, with a platform declaring for factory laws, 
for shorter working hours, for certain special advan- 
tages to the wage workers under capitalism, it would 
not be an easy matter to hold the Socialist movement 
to its complete revolutionary program. The only pos- 
sible safeguard is the strictest possible regulations in 
the Socialist party organization against all endorse- 
ments, fusions, compromises, bargains or mutual un- 
derstandings of any sort whatever with any other po- 
litical party regardless of its name, its purpose, or its 
platform.^ 

6. "All who are weary and heavy laden; all who suffer under in- 
justice; all who suffer from the outrages of the existing bourgeois so- 
ciety ; all who have in them the feeling of the worth of humanity, look to 
us, turn hopefully to us, as the only party that can bring rescue and de- 



Chap. XLV THS SOCIALIST PARTY 607 

842. Capture By Its Foes.— 2. Anotlier danger is 
the capture of the Socialist party and the control of its 
organization, its name, its platform, and its world-wide 
prestige by men who are not Socialists, or who, while 
they believe in the economics of Socialism, neverthe- 
less attempt to practice tactics either morally repul- 
sive or politically outgrown. To prevent this is a more 
difficult matter. Many of the proposals offered in this 
connection simply mean that the party can be kept 
spotlessly pure by being held forever uselessly small. 

843. Primary Laws.— Under the primary laws of 
most states, the men who vote the ticket, and in many, 
those who affirm their intention of so doing, are legally 
given voice in the control of the party's councils.'^ So 
long as the party exists only by petition it can govern 
itself in whatever way it may choose, but as soon as it 
becomes an official party, the laws of the various states 
determine largely the method of its government, and 
practically who shall and who shall not be permitted 
to vote in its primaries, that is, have voice in nominat- 
ing candidates, electing committees and in writing 
platforms. 

844. No National Primary Laws.— Fortunately for 
the purposes of the Socialist party, no such legal regu- 
lations have yet been enacted regarding the organiza- 
tion and control of national political parties; hence, 
the national organization, by refusing recognition to 
such state organizations, in all national matters, as 
are not satisfactory in the form of their organization 

liveranee, and if we, the opponents of this unjust world of violence, sud- 
denly reach out the hand of brotherhood to it, conclude alliances Avith 
its representatives, invite our comrades to go hand and hand with the 
enemy, whose misdeeds have driven the masses into our camp, what 
confusion must result in their minds! How can the masses longer 
believe in us?" — ^Liebkneeht: No Compromise, p. 42. 

7. Even the name of the Socialist party is not used in New York 
and in Wisconsin on account of state election laws, while in most states 
the laws specifically provide that no one who votes the ticket of any 
party shall be refused a vote at its primaries. 



608 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA PabtVI 

or the nature of their work, can provide some safe- 
guard against the corruption of the party in any of 
the states. In this way, those who are not regularly 
elected, dues-paying members of the local organiza- 
tions within the states can be refused any voice in the 
management of national affairs, and the national or- 
ganization so guarded can refuse recognition to any 
party in a state whose local action may be found to be 
in violation of the constitution, or the platform or the 
rules of organization established by the national party. 

845. Limiting the Membership.— It has been pro- 
posed to limit the party membership within the states, 
and state party constitutional regulations have been 
written and proposed with a view of forbidding many 
of those who vote the ticket from being able to obtain 
representation in the party councils. Without regard 
to whether this policy is a wise one, it will not be pos- 
sible to practice it, in most states, under the operation 
of the primary laws, whenever the party shall have 
become strong enough to maintain a legal existence 
under the primary laws. On the whole it may be taken 
for granted that, in the long run, those who vote the 
Socialist ticket will control the Socialist party, and 
that no devices for preventing this can long postpone 
or ultimately prevent such a result. 

846. Heresy Trials.— The heresy hunt is equally fu- 
tile. A man's voice in the councils of the Socialist 
party will not long remain subject to the approval of a 
trial board established to determine his orthodoxy un- 
der a semi-political and semi-ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion of a Socialist club.^ 

847. Withholding Charters.— The giving and with- 

8. "Diversity of opinions on theoretical points is never dangerous 
to the party. There are for us no bounds to criticism, and however great 
our respect may be for the founders and pioneers of our party, we rec- 
ognize no infallibility and no other authority than science, whose sphere 
is ever widening and continually proves what it previously held as truth? 



Chap.XLV THS. socialist party 609 

holding of charters within state organizations are not 
recognized by the state laws, and will have little force 
in the control of the local organizations, whenever these 
organizations come to such strength and power as will 
promise control in local elections, should they be made 
the means of attempting to enforce unreasonable party 
regulations. 

848. Only Rational Methods Can Prevail.— What- 
ever is done to safeguard the Socialist party, if it is to 
be finally effective, must be so just and so reasonable 
that it will command the confidence and respect of the 
whole body of the Socialist voters, and it cannot be 
in violation of the requirements of the state election 
laws. 

849. Disfranchisement a Failure.— It is impossible 
to safeguard any nation by disfranchising any share 
of its citizens; it is impossible to safeguard any polit- 
ical party by refusing voice and vote to any share of 
those who regularly vote its ticket. Socialism is not 
coming into existence because of the shrewdness or the 
wisdom of the Socialist committees ; the Socialist party 
is not coming into existence because a minority organ- 
ization of those who want Socialism are in favor of 
their own party. Both Socialism and the political or- 
ganization which will secure Socialism are the inev- 
itable products of the current political and economic 
development. As the numbers of those who want So- 
cialism increase, they will refuse to ask permission of 
any committee or of any organization as to whether 
they may or may not be Socialists, and the state pri- 
mary laws will protect their political rights in main- 
taining this refusal. 

850. The Only Safeguard.— The one safeguard, 

to be errors; destroys the old, decayed foundations and creates new 
ones; does not stand still for an instant; but in perpetual advance 
moves remorselessly over every dogmatic belief." — Liebknecht: No 
Compromise, p. 37. 



610 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

the only safeguard that is necessary, and the one 
which mnst prove itself all-sufficient, is to multiply 
the number of those who, because they understand So- 
cialism, really and genuinely want Socialism, from 
among those who have everything to gain and nothing 
to lose from the speedy overthrow of capitalism, and 
'who, understading the situation, therefore, cannot be 
misled in the councils of the Socialist party. 

851. Discipline of Politicians by Politicians.— Dis- 
cipline cannot save the Socialist party from the fate of 
having those who do not understand the situation mis- 
led by designing politicians. The politician is as likely 
to manage a machine created for that purpose as he 
is to be subject to its disinterested control. But gen- 
eral intelligence among the members, more complete 
and more universal knowledge of Socialism, a clearer 
understanding of the nature as well as of the necessity 
for a political party, and a wider and more active par- 
ticipation on the part of all its members in the party 
control will develop a political party which cannot be 
corrupted or destroyed in its struggle for the co-oper- 
ative commonwealth. 

852. Censorship.— No official censorship of Social- 
ist literature, no official silencing of Socialist speak- 
ers, no official declaration of what the Socialists shall 
be permitted to hear or what they shall be permitted to 
read can save the Socialist party from dismemberment 
or betrayal. Such means may easily destroy a political 
party, but they cannot save it. This would be espe- 
cially true in this country, where the struggle for free 
speech, a free press and a fair fight in all political con- 
troversies have been so frequently made by the most 
advanced and radical portions of American society. 

853. Doctrinal Purity.— But it is urged that ' ' sound- 
ness of doctrine" can be secured only by official or- 
gans and official representatives on the platform. 0th- 



Chap.XLV THS socialist party 611 

erwise any one may publish who can find readers and 
any one may speak who can find hearers. And it may 
occur that those who are poorly informed or who are 
purposely misleading may be able in this way to se- 
cure the widest hearing and that it is easier by official 
censure to silence such a person than to answer his 
arguments or defeat his proposals by other and better 
measures. 

The answer to all this is that this argument is very 
familiar. This is the same argument that has been 
used in defense of all the imprisonments, exiles and 
executions for opinion's sake for all the centuries of 
the past. 

The Socialist who would attempt to protect the ^^doc- 
trinal purity'' of his party by an official censorship of 
the activities of its members could hardly complain if 
the public authorities in any particular city, attempt- 
ing, in the same way to enforce their censorship, in an 
effort to protect the ^^ doctrinal purity" of the com- 
munity should send him to jail as the most effective 
method of silencing an agitator. 

854. Voice of the Minority.— It is a dangerous and 
unwise thing for the Socialists, who are enduring im- 
prisonment and outrage everywhere for the sake of 
freedom of speech as related to others, to speak slight- 
ingly of the contention for freedom of speech among 
the Socialists themselves. 

855. Free Speech and Majority Rule.— Among So- 
cialists, as among all parliamentary bodies, majorities 
must rule. But no group of men have ever worked to- 
gether who can so illy afford to treat lightly the rights 
of minorities within their own ranks. Only those who 
are conscious of the weakness of their position would 
fear debate. Only those who know they cannot main- 
tain their position by free discussion in a free field 
ever attempt to discredit an opponent or disfranchise 



612 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA PaetVI 

an antagonist as a means of defense. This is the posi- 
tion of all Socialists in their contests with others. It 
must be their watchword and their safeguard in dis- 
putes among themselves. Hear all sides, read all sides, 
understand all sides, and in that free field and fair 
fight of open discussion among Socialists, the man 
who does not understand will be powerless to harm, 
and whoever does understand will be unable to mis- 
lead, not because of the faith of the membership in any 
man or book, but because the Socialists themselves will 
fully know the necessity of keeping their party free 
from all complications with other parties or entangle- 
ments with any measures not clearly in behalf of the 
working class and tending directly toward the utter 
and lasting overthrow of capitalism.^ 

856. Summary.— 1. The Socialist movement is in- 
herent in the economic and industrial development in 
the United States after the same manner as in all other 
countries. 

2. The questions leading to and groxving out of the 
Civil War occupied the public thought of the United 
States for a quarter of a century. This quarter of a 
century commenced with America in the lead in the 
Socialist movement. It closed with America in the 
lead in economic development. All economic and po- 
litical forces are now culminating in a situation which 
promises the speedy victory of Socialism in this coun- 
try. 

3. The great predominance of agricultural workers 
in the United States over all other workers for so large 
a share of the life of the republic has made the pre- 
liminary political activities of this country, which nat- 
urally lead to Socialism more largely in behalf of work- 

9. "In the present society, a non-capitalist government is an im- 
possibility. The unfortunate Socialist who casts in his lot with such a 
government if he will not betray his class only condemns himself to im- 
potency." — Leibknecht: No Compromise, 



Chap. XLV THS SOCIALIST PARTY 613 

ers wlio were also small property holders than in other 
countries. 

4. The Populist movement was such a movement. 
Bnt its work and its disappearance lead directly to the 
outright Socialist propaganda in this country. It more- 
over leaves the Socialist party the sole party of opposi- 
tion as against all capitalist parties. 

5. The political democracy which has been fought 
for during the three hundred years of American his- 
tory and which has been so largely established in this 
country, makes the victory of industrial democracy all 
the easier and enforces the necessity of maintaining 
complete democratic self-government of the Socialist 
party by all Socialists more necessary and more inevi- 
table than in any other country. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

1. "V\Tiat was the nature of the first Socialist organizations? 

2. What was the condition of the Socialist movement in America 
half a century ago? 

3. What series of eA^ents seriously interfered with the development 
of Socialist organizations? 

4. What effect did this same series of events have on the economic 
development ? 

5. Why were the earlier working class movements in politics com- 
plicated with measures looking to the relief of small property owners? 

6. How was the Populist movement related to the development of 
the Socialist political organizations? 

7. How were the recent political Socialist organizations related to 
the movement in other countries? Is Socialism "foreign** to America? 

8. How are economics related to politics? 

9. Why can there be only two political parties as related to the 
economic class struggle? 

10. What facts in American life will make the movement in this 
country one of rapid growth? 

11. Wliat is the danger from fusion? 

12. A^Hiat is the danger from enemies of the movement becoming- 
active in the party work? 

13. Can the Socialists protect the integrity of their movement by 
adopting a plan securing a limited membership? 

14. How will the primary laws affect the party management? 

15. What is the only safe-guard? 



CHAPTEE XLVI 

A QUESTION BOX 

857. Equal Income. — Q. Will all the people liave 
the same income under Socialism? 

A. Socialism will bar from any income those who are able-bodied 
and render no service, and will so organize industry as to save the waste 
involved in capitalism. The workers may have equal incomes at one 
time and unequal ones at another. The joint workers will themselves 
determine how they will divide their joint products. 

858. Dividing With the Helpless.-Q. If the help- 
less are to be cared for, how then will the workers get 
the full product of their labor! 

A. The helpless are provided for now by the workers, not by the 
idlers. Under Socialism the cost of improvements, the repairs and pro- 
vision for the young and the helpless, will be necessaiy shares of the so- 
cial cost of production. Tho i^et products only can go to the producers, 
but from the net products nc> deductions will be made for rent, interest 
or profit. 

859. The Share of the Machines.— Q. Does not ma- 
chinery have a large share in production? Will the 
machines be given a share of the products 1 

A. Yes, all the oil needed to keep down friction and avoid waste, 
together with all the care and improvements necessary to enable the ma- 
chine to fulfill the "end of its being" will be provided for machines, then, 
just as now — and for working people, too, then but not as now. The 
machine will not be neglected nor the workers robbed for the benefit of 
those who are not workers. 

614 



Chap.XLVI the question box 615 

860. The Lazy.— Q. Onglit tlie industrious to be 
compelled to divide up with the lazy! 

A. No, but they are obliged to do so now. Wben the rendering of 
service shall be the sole condition on which the able-bodied shall be able 
to secure the benefits of the services of others, then the able-bodied who 
are lazy will go hungiy or go to work. Now they are frequently able to 
escape work either through the poM^er which the private ownership of 
productive property, which others must use, gives to them, or by resort- 
ing to begging. The lazy Avho rob and the lazy who beg will never again 
live at the expense of those who toil. 

861. The Incentive.— Q. Will there not be a lack 
of sufficient incentive to action under Socialism? 

A, Yes, there will be no incentive at all to adulterate food, to put 
shoddy in clothing, to steal, to defraud, to rob, or to hold a private title 
to lands or tools which are collectively used, for when all can have the 
free use of lands and tools no one will submit to being exploited in order 
to use either lands or tools; hence, the motive for owning what others 
use will disappear while, inasmuch as it will be easier and safer to earn a 
living than to steal it, the motive for every form of theft will also dis- 
appear. 

Not so, however, for all kinds of worthy activities. Now men work 
for a part of what they produce and get so small an income that they 
have neither time nor strength for anything else. Then life will be 
just as dear as now, but by increasing the income and shortening the 
hours those who toil may add to the interests of life the whole range 
of social and intellectual activities. Socialism will not destroy the in- 
centive to worthy action. It will preserve every worthy motive to ac- 
tion now in force and add the whole force of the higher range of life's 
most serious interests to the lives of the workers. But within the field 
of economic interests only it is certain that any reasonable man would 
work harder for all he produces than for only a share. 

862. Boss Rule.— Q. Is not your proposal to man- 
age the industries by majority rule dangerous? Do 
you want a ' ^ Tammany boss ' ' to manage the shops and 
mines ! 

A. That is exactly what we have now. The same economic mas- 
ters who control all the great industrial and commercial interests of the 
country are also the masters back of all the corrupt political bosses 
in existence. So long as capitalism remains, the "Tammany boss" or 
bosses worse than the "Tammany bosses" will control both the work- 
shop and the ballot box. The boss cannot be overthrown in politics so 
long as he is permitted to remain in business. 

863. The Socialist Boss.— Q. Will not the Social- 
ists develop bosses among themselves? 

A. They will not need to develop them. They will come into the 
Socialist movement with the life-habit of capitalism strongly entrenched 
in all their methods of procedure. It is because of this that there is no 
more important matter for the Socialists than to guard against boss 
rule in their own organizations. But the important point here is, that 
just so far as the Socialist movement falls under the control of any boss 
in its own management it makes itself incapable of overthrowing the 



616 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

industrial boss. Surely we can trust the people not to accept a "political 
boss" in exchange for a "shop boss." Capitalism cannot live without the 
boss, both in the shop and at the ballot box. Socialism cannot come 
without the overthrow of the boss both in the shop and at the ballot 
box. 

864. Religion.— Q. Does not Socialism make war 
on religion? 

A. No. Capitalism does. There is not a single religious precept 
for the government of human conduct which is not contrary to the estab- 
lished maxims and usages of capitalism. Socialism makes the only 
economic proposals ever made for organizing industry and commerce 
in a manner not in violation of the practical precepts of all the great 
religions. 

865. Attacking the Rich.— Q. Does not Socialism 
attack the rich? 

A. No. Socialism will make possible the abolition of involuntary 
poverty. Under Socialism the means of life will be so abundant that 
no one would ever be distinguished above his fellows simply because he 
was thought to be secure against want. The Socialist does not object 
to wealth. What he objects to is the monopoly of the means of 
producing wealth. 

866. The Family.— Q. Will not Socialism destroy 
the family? 

A. The family can be greatly injured either by cutting off its 
means of support or by so lowering the general average of human char- 
acter that the qualities which are essential to the maintenance of the 
family will be found to be lacking among the people. In both of these 
particulars it is capitalism which is at fault. It puts the proper 
support of a family beyond the reach of most men, and then so exhausts 
the vitality, so engages in long hours of toil, so exposes to conditions 
of temptation the great body of the workers that the home qualities 
are found to be largely lacking among the workers, while among 
the idle rich, who so ruthlessly invade the unprotected homes of the poor, 
by the very wrongs they commit against the poor man's family, dis- 
qualify themselves for entering into the real life of real families of 
their own. 

It is true that the marriage of the future will not be entered into 
for any economic consideration because of the economic equality of op- 
portunity for all the people. Those who contend that economic equality 
will destroy the home must hold that mercenary motives are the only 
ones sufficient to lead to marriage. Socialists believe that when people 
will no longer need to marry for bread that there are other and better 
reasons which will still lead them to do so. 

867. Anarchists.— Are not Socialists anarchists? 

A. There are many kinds of anarchists. If Kropotkin, Tolstoi, 
William Penn and all other non-resistants are meant in this question, 
then it may be readily admitted that many Socialists are non-resistants. 
But this question is usually meant to mean, are not Socialists laying 
plans to kill the rulers and destroy the governments? To this the 
answer is perfectly evident and altogether conclusive. The Socialists 
are everywhere trying to capture the powers of the government by 
peaceful, constitutional methods in order that the government may bQ 



Chap.XLVI the question box 617 

administered by all and in behalf of all who are willing to give service 
for service. In all this there is no threat of violence, no purpose to 
disturb the peace and good order of organized society. It is the capi- 
talists who threaten that should the Socialists come into control of the 
government, that then the capitalists will refuse to obey the law. 

868. Class Hatred.— Q. Are not tlie Socialists 
preaching class hatred? 

A. No. Class hatred arises from a clashing of class interests. 
Capitalists deplore class hatred and insist on perpetuating the economic 
system which creates, maintains and sets over against each other the 
economic classes. Socialists also deplore class hatred, but they propose 
to remove the cause by fighting out to an end the class war and by secur- 
ing a victory for economic justice and thus make an end of the 
economic war and of the economic classes, and so finally make an end 
of class hatred. 

869. Paying Dues.— Q. "Why do the Socialists have 
a dues-paying system in a political party? 

A. (1) Because those interested in any measure ought to pay the 
cost of its promotion. (2) Because if the Socialist party is ever to come 
into power large sums of money must be expended in the support of the 
party. If these sums are provided by voluntary contributions taken 
in an irregular way the burden will fall heavily on a few. If all pay 
small sums, and do so regularly, no one will be seriously burdened and 
the cause will be supported. (3) All should have equal right to be heard 
in a political party. But the dependence of the party on the payments 
of a few would give to that few undue influence in the councils of the 
party. 



CHAPTEE XLVn 

HOW TO WORK FOR SOCIALISM 

870. It is the purpose of this chapter to consider 
how one who desires to work for Socialism may do so 
most effectively. 

871. Previous Training.— In the first place, it ought 
to be said that the ordinary training and experience 
of a political party worker will not be of any value 
in this undertaking. You cannot urge the immediate 
personal advantage of an immediate party triumph. 
The bribes of offices and jobs and contracts for your- 
self or friends, wherein the gain of the party may be 
to the advantage of the partisan, cannot now, or at any 
time, be used to make votes for Socialism, Your party 
promises that the men who work for Socialism and the 
men who work against Socialism shall alike secure its 
benefits when Socialism shall have won the day. 
Neither will there be a chance to make votes for your 
party by any effort to mislead or deceive the voters. 
No form of coercion can be used to increase the num- 
ber of Socialists. You cannot depend on some fa- 
vorite leader to make his followers Socialists. The 
leader in politics is but the same thing as the boss in 
business. You must go after the men, not after their 
leaders. The voter must be delivered from the leader. 

618 



Chap. XLVII HOW TO WORK FOR SOCIALISM 619 

He must be delivered to himself. You can never gain 
anything by misrepresentation or exaggeration. When 
you speak with all truth and fairness your arguments 
will seem so strange and your figures so startling that 
thoughtful men are sure to sift them thoroughly if you 
are able to win their attention. / 

872. Choosing the Place of Battle.— The weapons of 
your warfare are of a different sort. You must pick 
your place of battle in another field. You must speak 
of the things men love and live for; your appeal must 
be for the welfare of all, for the rights of childhood, for 
the security of the aged, for life and leisure for all 
the workers, for the peace of society, for the brother- 
hood of the race. You must address the understanding. 
You must inform, convince, persuade, unite to your- 
self in the most genuine comradeship, and then fill with 
enthusiasm for the common cause. You must make 
of every new man a new worker who will help to build 
and not help to wreck the party of Socialism. 

In what way can you best do these things 1 

873. A Blank Book.— It will be found that in every 
department of endeavor that a man succeeds best, other 
things being equal, who will train himself in the use 
of a note book. You should get a pocket blank book 
and pencil as the first item in your equipment. In this 
book write day by day the things you intend to do and 
the things you have succeeded in doing for your party. 
Nothing will be of importance enough to take any of 
youi time which will not also be of importance enough 
to make a note of it. Then at least once a week mark 
up the book. By this, I mean check off the things you 
have accomplished and make out a new list of the 
things in hand for the succeeding week. 

874. Your Country.— The victory of Socialism 
means the changing of the views of many millions of 
people. Do not try to reach them all. You could not 



620 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

do that. You can reach a few of them. Try to do 
what you can do. Select from your friends or neigli- 
bors the men and women whom you have reason to 
believe would be most likely to be influenced by you. 
Write these names in your blank book. Give each per- 
son a full page, and as you go on with your work make 
your notes about each person on his own page. Now 
bear in mind that you are to be an effective worker for 
your party just in proportion as you are able to reach 
these people. This company of people becomes your 
country, in that so far as you can change the institu- 
tions of your country you must do so by first changing 
the views of these people. If your citizenship is to 
have any power beyond your own ballot it must be by 
the voices and ballots of these people. 

They may be likened to a jury before whom you are 
trying the case of Socialism. To win your case you 
must convince the jury. It is more than likely that 
these neighbors of yours are good jurors. If you can 
make your case clear enough and strong enough you 
will be able to win your case. 

875. Selecting Your Jury— Men to Avoid.— In this 
matter of selecting the people whose names shall be on 
your list you must be careful of your men. Selecting 
your jury goes a long way toward winning your case. 

In making up this list do not put the name of any 
one on the list who, for any reason, you may think 
would be unwilling to see you. Don 't become the advo- 
cate of Socialism among the people who do not like 
you. There are others. Make up your list of those 
with no personal quarrel with yourself. 

Do not put on your list any names of those whom you 
know would feel that Socialism is in any way an attack 
on their personal interests. As a rule, those who are 
large capitalists or are the special clerks and family 
dependents of large capitalists, pastors and officers 



Chap. XLVII HOW TO WORK FOR SOCIALISM 621 

of churches where the capitalist is master, active poli- 
ticians in other parties, office holders, bankers and 
bank clerks, or any one else who would be likely to feel 
satisfied with things as they are— none of these ought 
to be on your list. You will find public spirited and 
capable people among them, and as you do, be sure to 
put them on your jury, but they are likely to feel that 
their interests are opposed to Socialism. Their turn is 
coming when they, too, will find in Socialism the only 
escape from the commercial suicide of capitalism, but 
as a rule, you can do better work with those more likely 
to listen to you. 

In the next place, do not put any one on your jury 
who cannot think. The man who will not think may 
change his mind. The man who cannot think has no 
mind to change. Only those capable of understanding- 
can be made Socialists. So much for the people to be 
let alone. 

876. Whom to Select.— Here are the people you 
must be sure to have on your list: 

All wage workers, whether men, women or children, 
and then salesmen, expressmen, the employes of the 
great corporations, the mail carriers, small business 
men, teachers and professional men whose occupation 
removes them farthest from the petty interferences of 
the large capitalists. 

We have seen how the men in the trades unions are 
accustomed to assert their independence of their em- 
ployers, and are furthermore familiar with the neces- 
sity and advantage of organization. Do not forget the 
small farmers, farm tenants and farm hands. They 
have shown their ability to act independently in poli- 
tics. Their interests are entirely with the Socialists. 
We have seen that no one will be more benefited by 
Socialism than they. No one is .so far from and so 
free from the direct control of capitalists as they. No 



622 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

one can be more easily reached than they. No one is 
being more seriously misled regarding Socialism than 
they. The capitalists are most pitilessly robbing the 
farmer, and at the same time depending on him to pre- 
vent the coming of Socialism. 

And again, do not neglect the women and the minors. 
It is not only new voters but new workers for new 
voters that are wanted. Socialism means more for 
women than it does for men. Women will make most 
effective workers, and you must have them in your 
organizations and in large numbers. 

As to minors, the boys will soon be voters, but re- 
gardless of that fact, even children understand Social- 
ism easily and become enthusiastic for its triumph. 
Nothing can be a surer guarantee of the future of So- 
cialism than the way the young people take hold of the 
idea and the determination with which they go to 
work for it. Boys and girls twelve years old or over 
will be found valuable workers in many ways, and 
your organization must have a place for them. 

877. Where to Begin.— Always work with the easi- 
est man first. The story is told of a man engaged in 
unloading wood who was pulling the wood from the 
bottom of the load and with great difficulty. Some one 
suggested taking the sticks from the top first, only to 
be told that they were loose on top and would come 
off any time. But as the loose ones were taken off 
that would loosen the rest. So in the growth of our 
party, get the man who will come easiest. That in it- 
self will make the next man's coming easier. And thus 
from one to another until you have reached and won 
your whole jury. 

878. How to Reach Them— Conversations.— As the 
first means of reaching your jury of neighbors must 
be named conversations with them. In this matter it 
is usually best to be as direct as in presenting any other 
matter of importance. If yoii w'ere trying to get yolir 



Chap. XLVII HOW TO WORK FOR SOCIALISM 623 

neighbor to take out an insurance policy in some com- 
pany or society, in which you were interested, yoii 
would never think of beginning by nagging at him or 
bantering with him and provoking disputes in the 
presence of others. You would be likely to say to your 
neighbor that you had in mind a matter of importance 
which you wished very much to talk over with him at 
length and alone. You would secure an appointment 
with him for the purpose. You should tell him when 
you make the appointment for this purpose that you 
are deeply interested in Socialism and that you want to 
explain to him some of the things that Socialism would 
surely accomplish if put into operation, and the rea- 
sons which have compelled you yourself to become a 
Socialist. If you have selected the right man and ap- 
proach him frankly and in a kindly manner you are 
likely to get your hearing. If you do not, go to the 
next man until the hearing does come. Be sure that 
you do not arrange for him to get his neighbors to- 
gether to see you ''beat" some one in an argument. 
What you want is to win him to your party. He must 
think coolly if he is- to understand, and the spirit of 
personal strife is not in keeping with the spirit of in- 
vestigation. You have gotten him interested to the 
point of wishing to know. Be sure that he gets the 
main points in the Socialist program and that he un- 
derstands them. You can do this work very much bet- 
ter, one man at a time, and that man alone with your- 
self during the interview. Under no circumstances 
dispute or wrangle or banter in these talks. He is your 
juror, and you must convince him if you are to win 
your case. The cause of Socialism depends on your 
work now, and you must not be tripped into the use of 
angry words or into any utterance which may widen 
the breach between you and your juror and which you 
must fill before he can come over where you are; 



624 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

Be prepared in these interviews as far as possible to 
discuss the topics, in which the juror is most likely to 
be interested. If he is a small merchant, then the great 
department store and the ultimate public market, 
greater than the greatest store, the benefits of which 
will come to all, should be your topic. If he is a trade 
unionist, then speak of the battle of organized labor, 
the presence of the unemployed, the desirability of 
having all the workers in the organization, and finally 
the natural coming of Socialism in compliance with 
the central demand of the unions for shorter hours, 
larger returns to the worker, and all workers provided 
employment in the regular organization of industry. 
If he is out of employment explain how, under capital- 
ism, no party nor policy can in any way provide em- 
ployment for all the people all of the time, and how So- 
cialism will make certain for all who wish to toil the 
opportunity to do so, and that with the full products of 
their toil for themselves. 

If he is a teacher show him how the public school is 
in a way a recognition of some of the things which So- 
cialism contends for and how hunger, as well as ignor- 
ance, may destroy society. If he is an artist show him 
how Socialism will win a livelihood and leisure for all 
men, and how the joy of production may reach the mul- 
titudes who have never known, and who, under capital- 
ism, never can know anything but drudgery in toil. 

In the same way, have regard for his peculiar views. 
If he thinks imperialism is the question of the hour, 
emphasize with him the importance of the subject, but 
show him how imperialism is but one phase of capital- 
ism, and that so long as capitalism remains imperial- 
ism will remain also. If he wants the referendum, 
show him that any referendum as to which of two pro- 
grams shall prevail when both are proposed by capital- 
ism will not remedy any of the evils of capitalism, and 



Chap. XLVII HOW TO WORK FOR SOCIALISM 625 

that Socialism is a program so radical and far-reaching 
that no impersonal referendum can give ns Socialism. 
Out-voted capitalism will consent to Socialism only 
when the same vote which gives a majority for Social- 
ism will also elect the public officers who with the 
whole powers of the state will inaugurate Socialism. 
Socialism can be secured only by the direct control of 
all of the departments of government in the face of the 
most determined opposition, and only a political party 
can accomplish that. Explain how no capitalist party 
will give us the referendum and how the Socialist 
party now governs itself by the referendum and that 
once in power the referendum will not only come along 
with the rest of the Socialist program, but that it will 
be extended to cover joint control of all the joint inter- 
ests of society. 

In short, go over and stand where he is, wherever 
that may be, and then reason yourself out of his posi- 
tion and bring him along with you on return to your 
own position. 

There is yet another caution for you in these conver- 
sations. Do not discuss men. Do not attack the party 
favorites of the old parties. It is more than likely that 
they have as good a leadership today as it is possible 
for them to have under capitalism whose servants they 
are. 

In the old parties the greatness of its leaders depends 
on their surrender to capitalism. In your party you 
might explain that" no office in the Socialist organiza- 
tion can add any power to any man, that each man's 
power in the party must depend solely and only on 
his intelligence, character and service, and that the tri- 
umph of Socialism will make an end of the trades and 
pulls of current politics wherein great men are made to 
play the role of small ones and small ones given the 
role of greatness. 



626 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

879. Correspondence.— After conversation with those 
you can so reach, would come correspondence with 
your friends at a distance. They would be glad to hear 
from you. They will be almost sure to read what you 
send them. They may be prejudiced against Socialism. 
They are not prejudiced against you. Write to them. 
Tell them that you are a Socialist, that you are hourly 
astonished at the false reports regarding Socialism. In- 
close some tracts and ask an opinion in reply. They 
will be sure to read, and if they do, they must become 
Socialists. "Whenever they say they are Socialists help 
them to organize for Socialist work wherever they 
may be. 

880. Organization.— Socialism can never come until 
Socialists are in control of the powers of the state. 
That means a party. You are not trying to create sen- 
timent or to spread intelligence only. You are to help 
to organize those who are Socialists, to make new So- 
cialists, and to organize them as fast as you make them. 
It is not only a majority of all the votes, but those vot- 
ers in a thoroughly organized political party that you 
are after. If there is no organization in your place, get 
your neighbors together and make one. You must have 
something to join in your own neighborhood, and you 
must be able to count your "*trength any day in the 
year. Nothing will give you courage more than the 
coming of the new men. Nothing will so strengthen the 
action of the newly made Socialist as to be made at 
once a part of an active working force. Proceed to give 
the new man party work. Show him how to use a blank 
book. Help him to make up his first list of the men he 
is going after. See him often, learn of the results of 
his work. 

The local organization will help to anchor not only 
the new but the old Socialists as well. Within its own 



Chap. XLVII HOW TO WORK FOR SOCIALISM 627 

limits it will afford tlie mutual strength of association 
and comradeship in a common cause. 

The meetings of such an organization will afford op- 
portunity for consultation, for the exchange of names 
on the workers^ lists. Where one has failed another 
may make a trial. When two are after the same per- 
son one may drop the name or both may arrange to act 
together and not at odds with each other in the same 
task. 

881. Cash.— Money in politics is one of the worst 
features of capitalism. The vast sums collected from 
candidates, office holders, contractors and the great 
corporations and trusts, all of whom expect to be the 
beneficiaries of their party victory, and these sums 
expended corruptly, involve the most outright betrayal 
of our public institutions. This money is used to buy 
the newspapers, to bribe speakers into the utterance 
of things which they do not believe and into silence re- 
garding the things which they do believe, to effect 
bogus organizations or to capture and destroy genuine 
ones, to secure the mailing lists of social and religious 
organizations, to offer prizes for the falsifying of elec- 
tion returns, to give banquets to bishops and judges 
whose names are used to conjure with, in dealing with 
their admirers, to furnish the stakes for gamblers who 
will bet for their candidates, and so commit the crim- 
inal to an interest in the capitalist victory, for free 
badges, free concerts, free vaudevilles, free excursions 
and free drinks and, finally, for the direct purchase of 
the votes themselves. This is the capitalist method of 
campaign. Whenever money in politics is mentioned it 
is this kind of a campaign which at once occurs to the 
minds of most men. 

Socialists do not need money for corrupt purposes. 
They need it for halls, for printers, for books, for post- 
age, for the cost of canvassing^ for organizing new 



j28 organization AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

fields, for conducting an open, honest campaign of edu- 
cation and organization. They have a worthy purpose 
for every dollar for which they ask and not only ac- 
count for it to their committees, but publish in their 
party press every dollar received and every item of ex- 
penditure. 

Socialists sacrifice much and hazard more when they 
vote for Socialism. But voting alone will not give us 
Socialism. You must get the majority of all the people. 
This means your small and regular gift of money to the 
party work. "When you get your new members explain 
to them that you are regularly paying to the party 
funds. Your work is not done until you make your new 
man a payer for Socialism as well as a voter for it. Ex- 
plain to him what the money is for and how it is used. 
Convince him that the only way to meet the corrupt 
money used to control corrupt men is by putting his 
money into a workingman's campaign to reach by edu- 
cational methods the working men. 

882. Literature.— You will do well if, on the occa- 
sion of your first .call on any of the men on your special 
list, you leave with them a book on Socialism, for which 
they have paid or a Socialist paper for which they have 
subscribed. Wliile you are there they may be inclined 
to dispute you, to talk back in an irrational manner, but 
if you leave with them some book or pamphlet, they 
will become interested in reading and will have no one 
to whom to talk back. Socialism always gets its most 
unprejudiced hearing when it is read about rather than 
talked about. If you cannot sell the book, then lend it. 
Do not give it, but lend it instead. That may give you 
an excuse for an earlier call again than even if they 
had paid for it. But whether lent or sold, you can fol- 
low up your next meeting by calling attention to the 
points in the book they have read, and so the reading 
and talking will help each other. 



Chap. XLVII HOW TO WORK FOR SOCIALISM 629 

883.— A Worker's Library.— Not all the Socialists 
can well afford to get all the books on Socialism which 
they ought to read. The local organization ought to 
have a circulating library large enough to cover the 
field pretty thoroughly and a reference library where 
the Socialist can get information on all the topics likely 
to arise in his party work. Whenever possible get 
these books into the regular public library. That is 
where they ought to be, and usually a little effort can 
get them put there. Then your neighbor who is not a 
Socialist may run across Socialism in an unexpected 
place. 

884.— Public Meetings.— Public meetings are of two 
kinds. Those where Socialists and those who are spe- 
cially interested in Socialism will meet, and those where 
the effort will be to reach the general public and ad- 
dress the people who are not Socialists. The one should 
be regular and frequent, the other should be special, 
ivad every effort should be made to make them very 
large and popular gatherings. The most difficult mat- 
ter in public meetings is in the advertising. The meet- 
ing must be brought before the attention of all the peo- 
ple over and over again. Fill the local papers with no- 
tices of the meeting and about the speaker. You need 
not be afraid of spoiling the speaker by talking about 
his abilities in your advertising. The Socialist speaker 
wiJl meet with things enough to keep him humble. You 
must advertise to get the crowd. You must advertise 
in a way that will make every person in the neighbor- 
hood feel that he must come to these special gatherings 
or miss the rarest of opportunities. T know that there 
are larger crowds at the theaters than at Socialist meet- 
ings. But the theater is better advertised. Beat the 
theatrical advertiser and you will beat his crowd. 

Then remember the songs. A great crowd oC people 
provided with Socialist songs and singing together will 



«30 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

be the best possible preparation for the Socialist 's ad- 
dress. 

Let every worker be sure that the men, women and 
children on his special list are at these gatherings, and 
then follow np the meetings with the canvass for new 
men, more papers and more books. 
' These meetings do not need to be held frequently, but 
they do need to be prepared for and then followed up 
with this special work, or the larger share of the value 
of the meeting will be lost. 

' 885. Classes for Study.— You cannot work effect- 
ively for Socialism until you understand Socialism. 
You cannot make effective workers of others unless 
you make them understand the subject. You can do 
this better by organizing a class for study than in any 
other way. Get a group of your neighbors together. 
Outline a regular course of study. Take it up faithfully. 
Encourage those studying with you to become special 
students of special topics. Send some one of your num- 
ber to a special training school class if possible. Al- 
ways be trying to learn more of the subject and you 
will be teaching others by the very effort you make to 
learn. 



CHAPTEE XLVm 

THE FINAL SUMMARY 

886. A Comrade's Greeting.— You who have fol- 
lowed these pages thus far and have understood the 
arguments presented are now able to determine your 
own position as related to this age-long warfare. If 
you choose to take sides with the oppressed and against 
the oppressors then I greet you as my Comrades and 
bid you fall in line in this most splendid battle for the 
co-operative' commonwealth. Humanity never set for 
itself a nobler task than ours. 

887. The infancy of Our Race.— You have followed 
the story of the primitive life of the race. You have 
seen how in the infancy of our race our ancestors fed 
themselves from roots and fruits and nuts gathered 
from the wilds \\hich no man called his own. From a 
meaningless ba])ble of unformed words, aided by ges- 
ture and grimace, in associated effort, they produced 
a language, by associated effort they fought off the 
beast of prey, and standing together, they preserved 
the race of man from utter annihilation. To nuts and 
fruits they added fish and built and kept a common fire 
from which each could carry living coals, and no one 
said **This fire is mine.'' They contrived and used 

631 



632 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA Part VI 

the bow and arrow and no one claimed returns from 
another's toil. Woman's ingenuity and skill and toil 
made fmd used pottery and the simple tools of the 
garden and the field, but no wojnan said **This field is 
mine. ' ' 

888. Tusks and Claws.— In the early youth of this 
race of ours, primeval man, with no tusks in his mouth, 
no claws on his hands, no hoofs on his heels, no horns 
on his head and no wings on his back, acting by tribes, 
tamed and made helpers and companions of those with 
tusks and claws and hoofs and horns and wings, and 
made these creatures do his bidding, to bring him 
food and drink, but no one said *'This herd is mine/' 
They learned the nature and the use of iron. They 
gathered it from the hills and they smelted it in the 
rude furnace of the hillside, and from it made the tools 
and weapons which made these ironworkers the mas- 
ters of the world, but around the doorway of that 
primeval furnace the cry of the striker was never 
heard and the outrage of the lockout was never known, 
for the private owner was never there. 

889. Primitive Achievements.— Eice and barley, 
wheat and corn, rye and oats, peas, beans and onions; 
gold and silver, iron, tin, brass and bronze; the sickle 
and the pruning knife, the distaff, spindle, shuttle and 
the loom; the harp and the shepherd's pipe, the dike, 
bridge and irrigation ditch; garments of cloth, shoes 
of leather and houses of stone; the dog, sheep, goat>, 
hog, cow and horse; the wagon of four wheels, the bas- 
ket, mill and bakery— and the '* white- winged ships, 
such as come down from the sea," these were among 
the things man had contrived and learned to use dur- 
ing the years which modern scholarship calls years of 
savagery and barbarism. In all this the private own- 
ership of the means of life was never known. 

890. Civilization.— After that the Phoenicians gave 



Chap. XLVIII THE FINAL SUMMARY 633 

the world an alphabet. It was civilization's birthday, 
and it looked up and smiled with a written record in 
its hand. 

But the record which has come to ns tells a story of 
rapine and wrong written in letters of blood and fire, 
and covering the age-long tragedy of a race betrayed 
and held in helpless bondage through fifty smoking 
centuries; for universal war filled the world with sol- 
diers and the ancient military masters of the world 
were simply slave drivers with a lash for those who 
were the slaves and a battle-axe for those who dared 
rebel. 

891. Evolution of Capitalism.— You have followed 
the story of labor through slavery and serfdom and 
into the wage system and have found the workers still 
without the legal right to even life itself except as the 
servants of others. 

You have seen how inventions ceased with the com- 
ing of slavery and were renewed with the return of 
self-employment in the free cities of Europe and on the 
American frontier. You have seen the development of 
the world-market and of the world-wide organization 
of industry and commerce. You have seen how the 
great combinations in industry are working under a 
system, the success of which depends on the mutual de- 
struction of each other 's enterprises, and how in the end 
the finally victorious combination must produce goods 
which it cannot sell, profits which it cannot reinvest, 
and will hold in utter dependence upon itself a world 
of workers all of whom it cannot possibly employ. 

892. Evolution of Socialism.— You have followed 
the development in the world's life of those forces 
which make for Collectivism, Democracy and Equality. 
You have seen how these great fundamental factors are 
inherent in the very nature of the race life and how 
the experience of the race, the growth of its religious 



634 ORGANIZATION AND PROPAGANDA PaetVI 

and political institutions, tlie advance of science, the 
growth of industry, the effort to realize in the smallest 
degree any of the advantages of mutual aid and the 
ever-growing sense of solidarity, all lead unerringly to 
the necessary final triumph, in the life of man, of the 
collective ownership of the things collectively used and 
with equal opportunity for all men and women '^to 
have a hand in the work" and a ^^ voice in the manage- 
ment ' ' of the things collectively owned because collect- 
ively used. You have seen that this is the glad alter- 
native which Socialism offers for the age-long tragedy 
of capitalism, which in its last act must end in self-de- 
struction. 

893. Social and Economic Controversies.— You 
have examined the social and economic controversies 
between capitalists and Socialists. You have seen the 
capitalists using the public power of all to serve the 
private interests of a part. You have come to under- 
stand how the Socialists are asking that the public 
power of all shall be used by all and in behalf of all 
and only so far as shall be consistent with the liberty 
and welfare of all. You have studied the contentions 
of the economists in defense of capitalism and you are 
able to expose the absurdity of their assumptions and 
to defend your own position. You are able to show 
that no form of money, no theories of value, no doc- 
trines of population, no defense of rent, interest, or 
profit can possibly justify the existence of capitalism. 

894. Current Problems.— You have seen how the 
fine arts, religion and education all suffer at the hands 
of capitalism. You understand why both the labor 
unionist and the farmer must be Socialists, and how 
large portions of the small dealers will be brought to 
the side of the exploited. You have seen how Socialism 
alone can offer any possible solution for the problems 
of the trust, municipal misrule, corrupt taxation, the 



Chap. XLVIII THE FINAL SU:MMARY 635 

riglits of woman, the race question, the traffic in vice, 
or provide for the care of the helpless and the aged 
without personal humiliation and without public dis- 
grace. 

895. Organization.— You understand the nature of 
a. political party and why the reorganization of Amer- 
ican political parties is necessary if the co-operative 
commonwealth is to b'e established. You have thought 
of the ways by which you may help to create and make 
triumphant the Socialist party. 

896. Comrades: The dominion of property is near- 
ing its end. Humanity shall no longer be subject to 
property. Property must become the servant of hu- 
manity. The dominant passion of the future will be 
shown in the struggle for the perfection of the human 
race. It is to this high task that the Socialist calls you. 
Get out your pencil. Make up the list of your neigh- 
bors whom you will try to reach. Enter at once upon 
this highest calling. Whatever other tasks await you 
make your work for Socialism the real business of your 
daily life. 



INDEX 



Chap. XXXIX; 261-62; 862-63. 



343 : 

114 : 

642 

re 



Notes. — 1. The numbers in this Index refer to the sections — ^not to the pages. 

2. In looking up any topics, use the Table of Contents together with tnis Index, as 
topics mentioned in the Contents are not repeated here. 

3. In looking up references, consult the foot-notes under the sections to which ref- 
erence is made. 

Abbott. 261 ; 420 ; 770. Boss Rule. 

Adams. 40 ; 96 ; 141 ; 162 ; 173 ; 177 ; 183 ; Brace. 90. 

222 ; 372 ; 385 ; 514 ; 564. Bright. 607. 

Adams, John. 650 ; 810. Brinton. 59. 

Adams, John Quincy. 811. Brooks. 198 

Adams, Samuel. 649 ; 809. Brotherhood. 

Africa. 77; 84; 654; 661. 
Age, Of the world. 23 ; 58. 
American Labor Union. 663. 
Anarchists. 367 ; 568 ; 867. 
Angelo. 459. 
Animals, And Men. Chap. II ; 30 ; 31 ; 35 ; 

37 ; 41 ; cattle thieves and soldiers, 53 ; 

co-operative, 193 ; in use under barbarism, 

48 ; mounted men, 116 ; music of, 503 ; 

struggle for existence, 446 ; 455 ; tam- 
ing of, 46. 
Architecture. 504. 
Argyll. 394. 
Aristotle. 286. 

Arts, The Fine. 343; Chap. XXIX. 
Augustine. 304 ; 519. 
Australia. 574. 
Avebury. 23. 
Bacon. 304. 
Bain. 556. 
Baker. 154. 
Baldwin. 206. 

Bankers. 163; 319-20; 442-45; 595. 
Bankruptcy, Consolidation or, 154 ; inevita- 
ble, 320 ; trusts, 182. 
Barbarism, Economics and. 392-5 ; 426-9 ; 

periods of, Chap. Ill ; place in the race 

life, 26 ; 213-14 ; 238 ; 328-31 ; 453 ; 501 ; 

516 ; 521-43 ; 773 ; 781-84 ; 800-803 ; 887- 

889 ; slavery and, 63-85 ; serfdom and, 

91-94; 104; 105; war and, 185; 355; 

756-58; 805. 
Basanquet. 735. 

Bascom. 4 ; 198 ; 223 ; 330 ; 342 ; 486 ; 499. 
Base-Ball. 773. 
Bastile. 648. 
Beard. 794. 
Beginnings, Of Social Institutions. 13 ; 25- 

26; 62. 
Bellamy. 304 ; 308 ; 519. 
Bemis. 629. 
Besant. 454. 

Bible. 53 ; 73 ; 229 ; 501 ; 519. 
Bishop Hill. 316. 
Bismarck. 703. 
Blackstone. 245. 
Blank Book. 879, 
Blanqui. 78; 141; 305. 
Blissard. 491. 
Blood-Current, The. 337. 
Boers. 203. 
Books. 1 ; 56, 



701; 752. 
Beginning, 58. 

Brotherhood of Railway Employes, 663. 

Buckle. 115. 

Burke. 821. 

Burns. 519. 

Butler. 558; 559. 

Caesar. 501. 

Cannibalism. 532; 781. 

Carlyle. 343 ; 385 ; 519 ; 648. 

Carnegie. 184. 

Carpenter. 800. 

Caucus. 649. 

Censorship. 852. 

Chinese Labor. 167; 654; 661; Chap. XLI. 

Charity. Chap. XLIII. 

Church, The. 217; Chap. XVI; 333; 
540 ; 556-57, and charfty, 784-89. 

City, The. Beginning of, 66 ; 67 ; 109 ; 
120; 124; free cities, 118; 213; 
647 ; 653-54 ; misrule, Chap. XXXVI 
enue, under Socialist control, 696-700. 

Civil Service. Chap. XXXIX. 

Civilization, Art and. 516 ; beginning ( 
Chap. IV ; loss of fraternity, 799-803 ; r 
invented, 29 ; place in race life, 26 ; ro( 
of, 31 ; 32 ; summary, 890. 

Clark. 154; 195; 419; 495. 

Class Conscious. 146-49; 197; 221; 3f 
353-54 

Classes for Study. 885. 

Class Struggle, The. Beginning of, 51 ; .' 
continuance of, under slavery. Chap. ^ 
under serfdom. Chap. VII; under w 
system, Chap. VIII ; end of, 185 ; 372- 
498; 519; 605; 640; 663-71; 684; 7 
democracy and, 216; 262-63; 265; i 
pressible. Chap. XI; XXI; 835-40; 8 
machines and. Chap. IX ; 167-74 ; 2 
259; 284; 261-62; 294-300; 320- 
342-44; 597; middle class and, CI 
XXXIII ; 568 ; principles in, 190-93 ; 2 
050 ; 835. 

Clay. 812. 

Clodd. 523 ; 524 ; 526 ; 527. 

Clothing. Means of life, 1 ; 8 ; 30. 

Cobden. 607. 

Collectivism. 1 ; primitive, 56-61 ; All 
Part III. 

Commerce. Art and, 511 ; beginning of, 
109; 111-114; 10.3-125; 153; 166; 
tension of, 332; 334; final mouoi 
638; science and, 274; 541; suicide 
180. 

636 



INDEX. 



637 



Communism. Primitive, Chap. IV; 73; 93; 

304 ; Socialism and, 303 ; 701. 
Competition. Chaps. IX and X; end of, 

183; 189; 320-21; Chap. XXII; 398-99; 

G38-40 ; ruin of competitors,, 568. 

Conscience. 485. ^.^.. 

Conscious Selection. 248; 280-85; 342-44; 

515-16; 541-42; 566; 896. , ^^^ 

Consolidation. See trust; inevitable, 154- 

156; 175; Chap. XXII. 
Conversation. 878. . 

Co-operation. Primitive, Chap. IV; colonies 

and societies, Chap. XIX; in nature. 

Chaps. XIII and XIV ; machines and, 152 ; 

Chap. XVIII. . , . ^,« 

Corporation, The. City misrule and, 676- 

688 ; collapse of, 182-89 ; 320 ; 342 ; Chap. 

XXII ; evolution of, 151 ; 287-293 ; public 

function of, 324. 
Courts. Enmity of, 315. 
Crafts. 667. 
Creighton. 566. 
Crime. 279. 
Croll. 23. 

Cromwell. 127; 349; 607. 
Crozier. 141; 279; 326. 
Cunningham. 32 ; 111 ; 118 ; 161 ; 491. 
Cuba. 654. 
Daniels. 693. 

Darwin. 14; 37; 198; 446; 500; 800. 
Davidson. 377. 
Day, Short. Possible, 2; 659. 
Debts. In slavery for, 82-4; public inter- 
ference, 400 ; none un^er Socialism, 445. 
Dement. 483. 
Democracy. Education and. Chap. XXXI ; 

evils of, 721-26; fall of, 71-73; Chap. 

XIII; XIV; XVI; industrial, 147-195; 

277; 294; 300; 326; 375-80; 424; 605; 

640 ; 710 ; 738 ; 771 ; Socialism and, 12 ; 

war and, 50 ; 62. 
Democratic party. 671 ; 673 ; 677 ; 680-88 ; 

753; 812-22. 
De Tocqueville. 721. 
Dickens. 519. 
Discipline. 104; 712-26. 
Divine Right of Kings. 109 ; 265-273. 
Dos Passos. 376 ; 629. 
Douglass. 816. 
Doyle. 82. 
Drugs. 765-80. 
Druids. 501. 
Drummond. 20; 519. 
Earth, The. Chap. XV; and man, 331; 

461-69 ; beauty of, 512. 
Economic Determinism. Chap. II and III ; 

complex causes, 63 ; economic man, 383- 

85; 485; illustrated; 59; 62; Chaps. VI- 

X; XVII; 350; 621-23; 728; 835-39; 

limitations, 36-38; 385-88; 398; race 

hatred and, 750-763. 
Economists. 125; Chap. XXIV; 405-413; 

482 ; gloomiest page of, 385 ; 462. 
Edison. 459. 
Education. Chap. XXXI ; negroes and, 744 ; 

753-54 ; schools and unions, 657 ; support 

of, 84 ; the teacher, 541. 
Election Laws. 823-27; 843-44. 
Eliot. 486 ; 507 ; 558 ; 561 ; 565. 
Elizabeth. 788-89. 
Ely. 124 ; 191 ; 400 ; 477 ; 479 ; 483 ; 485 ; 

490; 492; 676; 794. 
Emerson. 138: 187. 
Engels. 40; 59; 76; 120; 141; 167; 177; 

187; 275; 376; 492; 613; 616; 620. 
Equal Income. 857. 
Equality. 10 ; 62 ; Chaps. XIII ; XIV ; 284 ; 

342; 351-56; 364-65; 379; 400; 417-24; 

445; 464-70. 
iBlvolution. Explained, 13-25 ; the struggle 

for existence, 14 ; the struggle by groups, 



15 ; the argument, — the embryo, 19 ; rudi- 
mentary, 16 ; 20 ; records, 21 ; time, 22 
astronomers, 23 ; conclusions, 24 ; 62-64 
of capitalism. Part II ; limits of, 462 
summary, 891 ; of Socialism, Part III 
summary, 892 ; industrial government and 
294-301 ; the state and, 367-370. 

Exchange. 403-19; Chap. XXVI. 

Expansion. Barbarian, 50 ; Roman, 88 ; un- 
der serfdom. Chap. VII ; under the wage 
system, 106 ; 108-126 ; 136-144 ; 183 ; 290 ; 
Chap. X ; 321-26 ; 334 ; 3^1 ; 371 ; 418 ; 
635-40 ; 662-70 ; race problem and, 758-61. 

Exploitation. Extent of, 179 ; indemnifica- 
tion for, 486 ; justifying, 415 ; methods of. 
Chap. XXVIII; 185; 198; 417-24; 618; 
of dependent races, 748-62 ; origin of, 
51-54 ; who are victims, 593-98 ; 618 ; the 
way out, 498. 

Factory System. Beginning of, 113-128 ; 
consolidation and, 156-57 ; factory laws, 
400 ; in New England, 84 ; machinery and. 
Chaps. IX ; XVII ; the farm and, 580-87 ; 
594 ; the school and, 565-573. 

False Issues. 679. 

Falsifying Text Books. 564. 

Family. Earliest, 27 ; 28 ; 41 ; 42 ; advance, 
43 ; monogamic beginnings, 45 ; polygamy, 
46 ; woman and early industry, 42-54 ; her 
subjection, 55 ; her distress, 465 ; 486 ; 
Chap. XL ; marriage forbidden, 458 ; fam- 
ily of farmer, 603; of nations, 637; So- 
cialism and, 866. 

Famine. 463. 

Farm, The, and Farming. 449 ; 614. 

Farmer. Chap. XXXII ; 607 ; 876. 

Federalist Party. 809-11. 

Ferri. 31 ; 279 ; 324 ; 363 ; 365 ; 367 ; 455 ; 

Ferrfs. 286. 

Feudalism. See Serfdom. 

Fetishism. 526-32. 

Fish Story — Walker's. 392. 

Fishing Banks, Co-operative. 293. 

Fiske. 16 ; 23 ; 32 ; 35 ; 64 ; 85 ; 195 ; 196 ; 
197 ; 224 ; 273 ; 354. 

Flag. 172 ; Her Majesty's, 377. 

Flint and HiD. 342 ; 355. 

Food. 1 ; 8 ; 30 ; 32 ; roots, nuts and fruits, 
41 ; fish, 42 ; game, 44 ; cereals, 46 ; prim 
itive products, 48 ; limit of, 448-70 ; 
495-98. 

Franchise. Elective, 9; 55-58; 113; 206 i 
650; 732-39; 745-63; 826. 

Franklin. 405 ; 649. 

Fraternities. 113; 219; 343; 784-86; 799- 
800. 

Freeman. 91. 

Fuel. Means of life, 1 ; 8 ; 32. 

Fusion. 837-41. 

Games of Chance. Chap. XLII. 

Geikie. 23. 

George. 405 ; 478 ; 480. 

Gibbins. 57 ; 63 ; 90 ; 178 ; 184. 

Gibbon. 88. 

Giddings. 196; 542. 

Gide. 40.7- 

Gladstone. 60Tv 

Glasgow. 709. 

Godkin. 50^. 

Goodwin. 8b. 

Government. 27 ; 28 ; in savagery and bar- 
barism, 41 ; the gens, 44 ; the phratry, 45 ; 
the tribe, 46 ; based on force, 51 ; con- 
quest, 53 ; fall of, as based on kinship. 
51-61; 62; 66; 67; control, 626-28; in- 
dustrial, 295-301 ; 375-380 ; 729 ; just 
powers of, 207 ; Chap. XXIII ; owner» 
ship, Chap. XXXVIII. 

Qreeley. 722. 

Greene. 89 ; 90 ; 117 ; 120 : 647. 



638 



INDEX. 



Guilds. 113 ; 218 ; 643-45 ; 653. 

Guizot. 71. 

Gumplowicz. 17 ; 57 ; 65 ; 620. 

Guyau. 341; 770. 

Hadley. 31 ; 224 ; 398 ; 407 ; 411 ; 539 ; 561 ; 
629 ; 632 ; 635 ; 706. 

Haeckel. 22. 

Hall. 561 ; 572. 

Hamilton. 34 ; 459 ; 810. 

Hancock. 809. 

Hanna, Senator. 176. 

Harper. 561. 

Harris. 558; 561. 

Hartford Convention, 811. 

Hegel. 34. 

Helpless. Chap. XLIII ; 858. 

Henderson. 341 ; 368 ; 372 ; 879 ; 380 ; 789. 

Henry VIII. 787-88. 

Henry, Patrick. 809. 

Heresy. 846-56. 

Hertzka. 308. 

Hillis. 566. 

Hillquit. 191. 

Horn 480. 

Hobson. 140 ; 141 ; 153 ; 343 ; 377 ; 638. 

Homer. 48; 501. 

Homes. 1 ; 46 ; 48 ; serf's, 89 ; and art, 
511 ; and the school, 565-73. 

Hooker. 256. 

Horse Race. 773. 

Hospitals. 790. 

Howell. 643 ; 645 ; 652. 

Hugo. 519. 

Hyndman. 327. 

Ideals. Higher. 35 ; 36 ; no denial of, 38. 

Idleness, Enforced. 167-72 ; 184 ; 588 ; 717. 

Ihering. 46 ; 50. 

Illiteracy. 565-73; 753-55; 770. 

Imperialism. Chaps. X; XXXIV. 

Incentive. 279 ; 341 ; 398 ; 723-26 ; 861. 

Indemnification, 485-87. 

Indians, American. Without slaves, 76 ; 
Pueblos, 362 ; Poetry of, 501. 

Independents. 673. 

Individual, The. 147 ; 151 ; 278 ; emancipa- 
tion of 289 ; 329-32 ; 340-41 ; 379-381 ; not 
considered in study of social causes, 190- 
91. 

Industrial Organization. 294-300 ; 663-71. 

Industrial Revolution. Chap. IX ; Chap. 
XVIII; 650-52. 

Industry. Power of modern, 2 ; earliest, 42 ; 
44 ; arts and, 500 ; 514-19 ; inventions 
and. Chaps. IX ; X ; modern, beginning 
of, 109-128; solidarity and, 146-50; 294- 
300 ; 335 ; 340. 

Ingram. 74 ; 342 ; 360 ; 534 ; 535. 

Instinct. 30; 264; 521-22. 

Interest. 125; Chap. XXVIII. 

Inventions. Primitive, 41 ; use of fire, 42 ; 
bow and arrow, 43 ; pottery, 45 ; use of 
animals, 46 ; smelting iron, 47 ; primitive 
achievements, 48 ; 56 ; 57 ; cause of, 138- 
140 ; 274 ; Effects of, 59 ; 61 ; Chap. X ; 
320 ; era of. Chap. IX ; Chap. XVIII ; so- 
cial forces and, 190 ; 191 ; 541. 

Irrigation. 48; 462;. 602. 

.Tackson. 257 ; 812. 

.Jamestown. 564. 

.lefferson. 257; 810-12. 

.Tenks. 155; 630; 676. 

Jesus. 216. 

Jevons. 405; 408; 412-13. 

.Tews. 73 ; 536. 

.John of Patmos. 519. 

.Jones. 3; 187. 

.Juglar. 187. 

Jury. 202. 

Kansas. 832. 

Kansas Twine Factory. 702. 

Kautsky. 183; 324; 374. 



Kaweah Colony. 318. 

Kidd. 184 ; 355 ; 495. 

Kirkup. 191; 405. 

Knox. 810. 

Kropotkin. 93; 194; 198. 

Labor. Beginning of slavery, 51-55 ; child 
labor, 565-72; 594; Chinese, 168; com- 
modity, 397 ; dependence of, 1 ; 2 ; 3 ; 4 ; 
5 ; 6 ; displacement of, 145 ; drudgery of, 
286-89 ; duty of, 10 ; first division of, 42 ; 
idleness enforced, 184 ; 602 ; land and, 
447-455; 471-78; Lincoln on, 258; power 
to buy, 179 ; primitive labor of women, 
45; 47; 49; 55; self employed, 574-606; 
serfdom and, Chap. VII; slavery and, 
Chap. VI ; wage system and, Chap. VIII ; 
187 ; Value of. 412. 

Land. Collective, 8 ; 10 ; cultivation of, 447- 
451; department, 296; free use, 11; ine- 
quality and, 5; inherited, 7; loss of, 94; 
102 ; monopoly of, 3 ; 30 ; 131 ; Mosaic 
system, 73; rent of, 471-98; serf's inter- 
est m 88 ; 91 ; 92 ; 93 ; 96 ; struggle for, 

iii-sl^liVfl; '"'■• '''■■ "'^*^™' ^"^ 

Language. Development, 56. 

Lane. 206 ; 728 ; 771 ; 806. 

Lassalle. 368. 

Lasson. 370. 

Laughlin. 400; 454. 

Laveleye. 458. 

Law. Authority of, 245-47 ; does not create, 
190-91; 272; 428; of life, 267-273; 

541-42. 

Lefevre. 187. 

Leisure. Loss of, 507-513 ; means of life, 
1 ; ample, 2 ; 363. 

Letting things alone. 400. 

Liebknecht, 11; 67; 191; 335; 620; 836; 
841; 855, 

Lincoln. 257-58 ; 459 ; 564 ; 816. 

Lincoln, Levi. 650. 

Lilly. 485; 796. 

Literature. Life and, 339; 343; 500-504; 
means of life, 1 ; 51 ; means of warfare, 
122 ; 882. 

Locke. 373 ; 376 ; 405. 

Loria. 96; 247. 

Lunt. 385. 

Luther. 127. 

Lyell. 23. 

Macaulay. 106. 

Machinists' Union. 663. 

Mackenzie. 379; 566. 

Macleod. 405. 

Macrosty. 141 ; 179. 

Madison. 650. 

Maine. 50 ; 93 ; 805. 

Malthus. 382. 

Management, Democratic. 9 ; 12 ; 56 ; 58 ; 
199-204 ; 213-226 ; 299-300 ; 355 ; 375-380 ; 
424; 470; 498; 552; 572; 604-5; 623; 
664; 670; 683-88; 710; 721-26. 

Manager, The. Hired, 293 ; 424 ; 568 ; man- 
aging producer, 474 ; 491-98 ; 587. 

Manifesto, Communist, 141 ; 167 ; 177 ; 
275 ; 303 ; 376 ; 829-30, 

Manufacturers' Association. 6 ; 621. 

Market. 28 ; 114 ; 140 ; Art and, 514-17 ; 
education and, 559-563 ; gambling and. 
Chap. XLII; world, 153-174; 177-78; 
287-290 ; 349. 

Marriage. Across race , lines, 746 ; depen- 
dence, 730-38; forbidden, 454-59; primi- 
tive, 42-55 ; in serfdom, 90 ; Socialism 
and, 866. 

Marshall. 15; 156; 383; 387; 408; 449* 
451 ; 453 ; 458 ; 770. 

Marshall, Chief Justice. 650. 



INDEX. 



Both as serfs and 



Marx 4: 37; 3?); 119; 139; 141; 143; 
167" 177; 275; 307; 827; 376; 404-405; 574-75; 
613; 618; 620; 834. 
Mason. 'SO; 42 ; «5. 
Massart. 293; 4Vvi. 
Mastery and Servitude. 

slaves, 97-101 ; caused by war, 51 ; 65 ; 
end of, 633; inhe.\ited, 7; 33; in schools, 
562-66; race wavv Chap. XLI ; religion 
and, 535; 543; 54'A 551 ; science and, 265- 
273 ; tyranny, 4 ; vwge system, 103 ; 117- 
120 ; 124-29 ; 620 ; *;33. 

May. 658. 

Mayo-Smith. 224. 

McMaster. 577. ^ . .^. 

Means of Life. Achievv^wents of primitive 
'man, 56; 57; 132; dependence for, 117- 
18 ; 262 ; freedom to pn^v^uce, 8 ; monopoly 
of, 3 ; named, 1 ; serfdoii and, 91 ; slavery 
and, 65; sources of, 2; jjtruggle for, 32; 
50. 

Medicine. 541. 

Melville. 31. ^ _^ ^ 

Middle Class, The. Beginn?v\g of, 121-9; 
place of, 347 ; Chap. XXi^lII ; farmers 
and, 592-6. 

Military Organization. 66-68; l-f6-17 ; 635- 
640; democratic, 203; hostlU„ 318; mar- 
ket and, 170-73 ; 662. 

Mill. 124; 382; 394; 399; 400; a03 ; 454; 
496. 

Millet. 519. 

Money. 28 ; Chap. XXVI ; in intei'UAtional 
trade, 163 ; 169 ; in politics, 672 ; 700. 

Monopoly. Art and, 510-519 ; capitalism 
and, 11 ; 12 ; 278 ; 398 ; 400 ; end of, 247 ; 
365 ; in contrast, Chaps. XIII, XIV ; 222- 
226; 228 — whole chapter; law of, 154 — 
whole chapter ; means of production, 3 ; 
102-104 ; 120 ; populists and, 259 ; pr»v 
yoking evil, 802 ; solidarity and, 342; ; 
value and, 418-425. 

Monroe. 650. -^ 

Morgan. 26 ; 27 ; 29 ; 31 ; 40 ; 44 ; 49 ; 51 ; 
55 ; 57 ; 58 ; 59 ; 63 ; 75 ; 300 ; 379 ; 393 ; 
532. 

More.' 304; 519. 

Morris. 115; 519. 

Moses. 459. 

Moyer. 488. 

Mortgages. 259. 

Music. 1 ; 500-501 ; 504. 

Napoleon. 203; 648. 

Nature. Of rights, 367-370 ; 389 ; of things, 
193 ; 204 ; 206 ; 222 ; 224 ; 231 ; 234-248 ; 
280; 367-370; provision of, 2; 240-42; 
421 ; subject of tyranny, 4 ; study of, 13. 

Nebular Hypothesis. 231-234. 

Negroes. Current problem. Chap. XLI ; 
northern slave traders, 83 ; 84 ; not orig- 
inally slaves, 77 ; set to work with white 
slaves, 82.' 

Nettleton. 154; 162. 

O'Hare. 293. 

Oklahoma. 582. 

Organization. 880. 

Osborne. 187. 

Ownership, Collective. Among Indians, 76 ; 
in savagery and barbarism, 44 ; 45 ; 46 ; 
end of, 51 ; 54-6 ; labor and, 419 ; land, 
tools, etc., 8 ; 9 ; 10 ; 11 ; of the earth, 
Chap. XV ; 288-301 ; of trusts, 626 ; 631 ; 
public, 373-380; Chap. XXXVIII; 717; 
serfdom and, 93 ; Socialism and, 12 ; 192 ; 
342 ; Chaps. IX, X, XIII, XIV, and XVIII. 

Ownership, Private. Means of life, 3 ; tyran- 
ny of, 4 ; Inequality and, 5 ; just, 11 ; 
capitalism and,' 12 ; beginning of, in 
productive pr(^erty, 51-60; 63-68; 88; 
91-93; 130; Chap. XV; 291-9; 320; 342; 
344 ; 391-5 ; of simple tools, 576-581. 



Painter. 557. 

Painting. 504. 

Parker. 561. 

Patents. 320; 480. 

Patten. 47 ; 473 ; 510. 

Paulsen. 10; 458. 

Payments, Deferred. 438-444. 

Paying Dues. 869 ; 881. 

Petty. 405. 

Philippines. 654; 661. 

Pictures. 1 ; Utopian, 302. 

Plato. 519. 

Poets and Prophets. 302 ; 339. 

Political Parties. 610-624; Chaps. XLIl^; 
XLV. 

Politics. Corrupt, 672-688 ; 881 ; economics 
and, 625-41 ; 835 ; labor in, 665-671 ; 
meaning of, 67; political power denied, 
94 ; races and, 753 ; woman in, 737 ; work- 
ers and, 258 ; 340. 

Poor House. 791. 

Polytheism. 527-541. 

Populists. 259; 832-841. 

Population, Theories of. Chap. XXVII. 

Poverty. Of the many, 7, 11, 12; End of, 
36 ; 118 ; genius of the poor ; 459 ; in 
schools, 560-572 ; religion and, 544-555 ; 
shame of, 498 ; 563 ; Chap. XLIII. 

Primitive Society. Importance of, 26-29; 
386 ; man not helpless, 30 ; roots of civi- 
lization, 31 ; solidarity of, 328-331 ; sum- 
mary, 887-89. 

Products. Division of, 10 ; 287 ; 401 ; 423- 
25; 471-498; 650-660; 858-860. 

Profit. 471-498; anti-social, 513; vice and, 
Chap. XLII. 

Prohibition. 776. 

Promotions. 719-725. 

Public, The. 322-326. 

Public Loans. 600. 

Publicity. 626-27. 

Public Meetings. 884. 

Purchasable Voters. 678-688. 

Race Hatred. Chap. XLI. 

Rae. 191. 

Ravenstein. 451. 

Reason. 264; 273; 521-55. 

Referendum. 819-20. 

Religion. 333; Chap. XXX; 864. 

Rent. 392-93 ; Chap. XXVIII ; 704. 

Renters. 592-97. 

Republican Party. 671 ; 673 ; 677 ; 680-88 : 
753; 812-22. 

Rhodes. 186 ; 377. 

Ricardo. 382 ; 405. 

Rich. 103. 

Ritchie. 405. 

Rogers. 38 ; 93 ; 118 ; 120 ; 145 ; 149 ; 372 : 
385 ; 393 ; 398 ; 486 ; 787. 

Romanes. 20. 

Roscher. 65. 

Rothschild. 271. 

Ruskin. 103 ; 111 ; 509 ; 519. 

Ruskin Colony. 317. 

Sanitary, The. 92 ; 224-25 ; 278. 

Savagery. Place in race life, 26 ; period of. 
Chap. IV. » . f , 

Saloon, The. 777. 

Scarcity. 409. 
Schaeffle. 307. 

Science. Chaps. II ; III ; 230-244 ; Chap. 
XVII ; 305 ; "dismal," 385 ; limitations in, 
385-88 ; solidarity and, 336-38 ; 541. 
Sculpture. 504. 

Self-employed. In fifteenth century, 93 ; in- 
ventions and, 134-139 ; end of, 93-95 ; 258 ; 
574-91 ; for all, 712-26. 
Seligman. 36 ; 38 ; 59 ; 161 ; 540 ; 548. 
Serfdom. Chap. VII; 102; 782-83; fall of, 
102-120; 189; 642-45; benevolent feuda/* 
ism, 186 ; on the Hudson, 578. 



64o- 



INDEX. 



Shakespeare. 459. 

Shuler. 232; 234; 235; 242. 

•Single Tax. 477-88. 

Slavery. 28 ; Bristol market, 90 ; causes of, 
51-60; 189; Chap. VI; charity and, 782- 
85 ; "coming," 712-26 ; inventions and, 
133 ; serfdom and, Chap. VII ; 187 ; slave 
propagation, 88 ; Northwest and, 578 ; re- 
ligion and, 535-37 ; 541 ; wage system and, 
102; 125-130. 

Small. 507. 

Smith, Adam. 85; 91; 109; 111; 112; 
376; 382; 405; 495. 

Social Compact. 125 ; 269-273. 

Socialist Party. 671 ; Chap. XLV. 

Solidarity. Loss of, 146-149 ; growth of. 
Chap. XX. 

Supply and Demand. 416. 

Spaulding. 542. 

Spencer. 87; 712. 

Spy. 724. 

Standard Oil. 419. 

Stead. 187 ; 693. 

Store-Houses. Monopoly of, 3 ; 5 ; collec- 
tive, 10 ; 445 ; filled, 363. 

Story. 165. 

Strikes, Under the Trust. 167-70 ; weapon 
of war, 650. 

Suffrage, Eaual. Chap. XL. 

Surplus Products. 176. 

Tactics. 840-56. 

Tarriff, The constitution and, 809 ; me- 
diaeval, 112 ; under the trust, 168 ; 626-30. 

Taxation. Chap. XXXVI, and XXXVII. 

Tax Dodgers. 675 ; 683 ; 686 ; 693 ; 700. 

Taylor. 64; 93. 

Theft. 51 ; 419 ; 486. 

Thorpe. 84; 650. 

Thrift. 391-94; 489. 

Tools. Collective, 10; growth of, 133-148; 
150-51 ; 274-77 ; 286 ; 581 ; inequality 
and, 5 ; free use, 11 ; 295 ; 422 ; inherited, 
7 ; monopoly of, 3 ; 117 ; 130-31 ; 574- 
590 ; schools and, Chap. XXXI ; share in 
production, 414 ; tyranny and, 4 ; 419 ; 
424, 496-98; effects of, Chaps. IX and 

XVIII. 

Tolstoi. 504. 

Toynhe. 383. 

Trade Unions. Ancient, 216 ; modern, 220- 
21 ; Chap. XXXV ; economist and, 385 ; 
democratic, 220 ; industrial, 294-301 ; race 
war and, 752. 

Transportation. Collective, 10 ; 296-301 ; 
584 ; means of life, 1 ; monopoly of , 3 : 5 ; 

I 169 ; 599 ; public ownership and, 70X-711. 

Travel. 512. 

Trust, The. Chaps. X ; XI ; XYKW} ^43; 
445. 

Turners' So^cties. 650. 

i:yler, Wat ft47. 



Tylor. 26. 

Tyranny. Legal owners and, 4 ; Capitalism 
and, 12; 63; 119; 120; 124; 129; 342- 
365; 377; 378; 497; 620; 662; 720-22 5 
762; 862. 

Utility. 407-8 ; marginal, 413. 

Uhlhorn. 786. 

Utopian and Scientific. 300-327. 

Value, Theories of. Chap. XXV ; 433-436. 

Village Communities. 94 ; 214. 

Vice. Under slavery, 78 ; under serfdom, 
97 ; under wage system, 102 ; traffic in. 
Chap. XLII. 

Vincent. 507. 

Vandervelde. 293 ; 486. 

Von Hoist. 269. 

Wage System. Chap. VIII ; 644 ; 671. 

Wages. Iron law of, 120; 400; 598; Chap. 
VIII ; tarriff and, 168 ; 704. 

Wagner. 519. 

Walker. 308; 383; 391-93; 397-99: 447: 
452 ; 455 ; 482 ; 485-86 ; 489 ; 493. 

Wallace. 19. 

Wallis. 67. 

Ward. 19 ; 31 ; 64 ; 85 ; 248 ; 264 ; 269 ; 
278 ; 341 ; 354 ; 399 ; 496 ; 503 ; 518 ; 563 

567. 

Ward, C. Osborne. 216 ; 219 ; 784. 

War. American Civil, 81 ; 575 ; 650 ; 753 ; 
816-18 ; 821 ; 830-1 ; American revolution' 
82 ; 649 ; 808 ; cause of primitive, 50 ; 
class war, 348-49 ; 730 ; commercial, 173 ; 
320-21; 332; 360; for plunder, 53; 67 
104-108; 130; 395; 635-36; gods and, 
534-37; gunpowder and, 115-117; means 
of escaping, 805 ; Mexican, 813 ; organi- 
zation for, 134 ; 139 ; 817-18 ; second with 
England, 203 ; 753 ; 811 ; 821 ; slavery 
and, 51-60; Survivals of, 773; war of 
ballots, 731 ; 805-856 ; 872. 

Washington. 810. 

W^aste. 659-60. 

Webb. 222; 323; 352; 487; 650. 

Wells. 139; 286; 629. 

Webster. 459 ; 650. 

Westermark. 41. 

Western Federation of Miners. 663. 

Whigs. 808 ; 815. 

Wilson. 379; 650. 

Woman. Primitive, 28; 41; 43; 45; 55; 
56 ; under slavery, 55 ; 78 ; under serfdom, 
89-91 ; under wage system, 144 ; 278-79 ; 
284; 446-70; 603; 771; 794-95; 866; 
vital relations, 336-7 ; 341 ; 500-504 ; pres- 
ent status of, Cha^ XL. 

Woolsey. 806. 

Worship. See Religion. 

Wright. 667; 770. 

Xenophon. 203. 

Your Country. 172-73 ; 874-80. 

Zola. 519. 



LBJa'15 



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